The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party has debunked the rumour making the rounds that the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, is planning to leave the party.
Rather, it said there was nothing in the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress, that could attract Ekweremadu into its fold.
Instead of losing members, the PDP said aggrieved members of the APC would defect to the former ruling party soon.
There had been unconfirmed reports that Ekweremadu was planning to defect from the PDP to the APC for allegedly losing the Vice-Presidential ticket of the party to a former Governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi.
Ekweremadu was believed to have positioned himself for the slot, but was said to have been disappointed when the PDP Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, announced Obi as his running mate for the 2019 presidential election.
As part of the strategy to clinch the VP position, Ekweremadu was also believed to have rallied round delegates from the South-East to vote for Atiku at the party’s national convention held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, about two weeks ago.
To show his disaffection, Ekweremadu, whose name had already been submitted by the PDP to the Independent National Electoral Commission as a senatorial candidate from Enugu State, was said to be considering leaving the PDP for the APC.
However, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, debunked the rumours, saying Ekweremadu “will never leave the PDP.”
Ologbondiyan said, “Why would someone like the DSP (Deputy Senate President ) consider joining the APC?
“This is a party that the highest court in the land just described as being stupid. Who will leave a rebranded party like the PDP and join such a party that has been described in such a derogatory word?
“Forget the rumour. Dr Ekweremadu is with us and will never join a party like APC that is enmeshed in eternal crisis.”
Asked if the party had met with Ekweremadu to determine if he was actually planning to leave or not, Ologbondiyan said that the “party has a way of holding meetings with its officials and others”, adding that “such meetings are not held on the pages of newspapers.”