PDP to Fubara: Why you can’t blame us for your travails

By Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has faulted claim by Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara that the party abandoned and failed to protect him when he was undergoing challenges.

Fubara made the allegation on Tuesday while he was announcing his decision to dump PDP for APC at a stakeholders’ meeting at the Government House in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.

Fubara had in his address claimed that he did not receive protection from PDP, hence, his decision to join the APC.

However, in a swift reaction, PDP, in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Ini Ememobong, described Fubara defection to the APC as “pitiful.”

The party however said Fubara was responsible for his travails, noting that he “willingly travelled the path that took him to this destination.”

The party therefore said Fubara cannot turn around and accuse the party of abandoning or failing to protect him.

“Everyone who has followed the developments that culminated in this uneventful defection will recall that the Governor willingly travelled the path that took him to this destination. Having done so voluntarily, he cannot turn around and accuse our party, or any other person or group, of abandoning or failing to protect him.

“Whilst a person at a crossroad of threats of existential proportion may suffer from temporary amnesia caused by trauma, the Governor should have nothing less than praise for our party, civil society organisations, and all Nigerians who freely stood up in his defence since this crisis started, until he capitulated.

“It is our prayer that the Governor does not suffer from Stockholm Syndrome, where a victim falls in love with their captor. In all, despite these, we pity the Governor and wish him well,” the PDP’s statement said.

However, PDP also said the development is further evidence of the dysfunctional nature of democracy in Nigeria, where individuals are bigger and stronger than institutions.

“Furthermore, the Rivers situation is a testament to the dysfunctional nature of our democracy, where individuals are bigger and stronger than institutions and can use the apparatus of the Federal Government to suppress political opponents and bring them to their knees. Democracy is severely threatened by acts of this kind, and all well-meaning people should unite in condemning this progressive decline of democratic norms.”

It alleged that the ruling APC is relentless in its pursuit of a one-party state.

The opposition party therefore urged Nigerians to unite to oppose possible attempt to push Nigeria towards one party state.

“Finally, we reiterate to Nigerians and the global community that with the unrelenting disposition of the ruling party towards the attainment of a one-party state and the constriction of the political space, democracy is under severe attack in Nigeria. Everyone must rise together to oppose this ignoble path toward electoral authoritarianism.”