FORMER governorship candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, Chief Solomon Edebiri, has dumped the party for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), citing alleged dictatorial tendencies of APC leaders as reason for his action.
Edebiri was received at the Edo secretariat of the PDP by the state chairman of the party, Chief Dan Orbih, a former Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Rowland Owie, among others on Friday.
Giving reasons for his defection, Edebiri stated that: “My major reason is lack of internal democracy in APC. The party is a one man show. Democracy in APC is not participatory. Everything in APC is imposition. I know that APC does not provide a fair environment for me to practice true democracy. I have consulted widely and I decided to leave.
“They imposed a candidate on me in my Local Government, I met with all the leaders about it, but at the end of the day nothing was done about it. We did our ward congress, the governor canceled the first one because his cronies were not favoured. They did a second congress and people who never participated in the congress emerged winners.
“That was flagrant abuse of democracy and for me that is unacceptable. So I believe I do not belong to that environment”. Asked if PDP was a better alternative, Edebiri asserted that “I spent time consulting with most leaders in PDP and after my consultation, the explanation I received from the leaders indicated that the dictatorial tendencies in the PDP before is no longer there. PDP has democratized in Edo state and it is a lot lot better party, to deal with than the APC”.