Sheriff’s deputy dumps PDP

The former factional Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr Cairo Ojougboh, has left the party along with his loyalists.

Dr Ojougboh led the defectors from across the state to surrender their party cards and emblems and discard them in the waste bin at his home in Agbor, Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State.

The ceremony was witnessed by the Minister of Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu and leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the South-South zone and the state.

The ex-federal lawmaker said they were patient with their former party to learn from the bitter lessons that cost them the presidency.

He said the acts of impunity have continued after the Supreme Court judgment that ousted the Senator Ali Modu Sheriff leadership.

Ojougboh claimed that the misappropriation of the over N20 billion Paris Club funds in Delta State, nepotism and other corrupt practices made him and others to renounce the party.

Dr Kachikwu conveyed the goodwill of President Muhammadu Buhari who he said was very enthusiastic to hear that Ojougboh was quitting the PDP.

He said Delta State shall witness a turnaround in 2019, considering the mammoth crowd that turned up for the renunciation meeting, which is not yet the formal declaration of the group into its desired party.

The APC South South National Vice Chairman, Chief Hilliard Eta, said the doors of opportunities in the party were open to the new group to take over Delta 2019 campaign.

Earlier, the former state chairman of the PDP, High Chief Austin Ogbaburon, told the visitors that the group had taken a decisive step to renounce their membership of the PDP.