47 INSIDEPOLITICS

would regret their actions.

“We want them to see if they can join the lunch, breakfast or dinner going on in the APC. At the appropriate time, we will know who is who,” he said.

Similarly, the chairman of the PDP National Caretaker Committee, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, said the APC would not fulfill whatever promises made to them.

A PDP chieftain from the north told our correspondent in a telephone interview that some party members were running to avoid being probed by the EFCC.

“Some PDP governors in the past administration have today decamped to the APC and the singular objective is to avoid being probed or investigated. Most of the ministers today in the APC administration were governors of various states. If the former governors of Admawa, Katsina, Jigawa and others are being probed, what stops the government from probing former governors of Rivers, Plateau and Lagos states?” he asked.

Pundits say why some PDP chieftains are jumping ship is to have a reliable platform on which to contest elections considering that the PDP had become “a sinking ship.”

One of the defectors who spoke with Daily Trust said elected officers on the party’s platform who are in their first term wouldn’t want to suffer defeat while seeking a second term.

“Let me tell you, I am convinced that some of the elected senators jumping ship is to secure their second term bids. Look, nobody would want to lose election for anything. The PDP is now a sinking ship. It has no relevance and cannot be used again. If you want to contest any election and you are still in the PDP, what it means is that you don’t have a platform. Remember what happened in Edo and Ondo States governorship elections last year.

“That is why Governor Ayodele Fayose saw it and said that he was considering the possibility of leaving the party. I think that is why they even made him chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum so that they will hold him back,” he said.

A chieftain of the APC and political analyst, Chief Jackson Lekan Ojo, said the defections may cause an implosion in the APC.

He argued that some of the PDP defectors do not want to go into the “grave” with the party so they look at the APC as the safe haven for them.

“Some of them are sponsoring small parties now so that when they cause a serious implosion in the APC, they will find their way into the small parties. So the people running up and down now to register new parties are just proxies.

“The financiers, the heavy weights, are hiding somewhere. The APC must be very careful. However, I want to advise Mr. President never to have pity on any one coming in under any guise. Arrest them, probe them and if possible, jail them,” he said.

The Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, in an exclusive interview with Daily Trust, added another angle to the discourse, saying the crisis is a blessing to the PDP.

“This crisis that has engulfed PDP is a blessing not in disguise. It is an open blessing. The crisis has helped the PDP to have a soul searching mechanism, it gives us the opportunity to weather the storm.

“This crisis has afforded the PDP the opportunity to be in the front burner every day, it is a topical issue in Nigeria. So instead of the party dying, it is being discussed every day in the media, on the streets. I think people are already campaigning for us ahead of 2019”.

With the political solution being brokered by former president Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State suffering a setback, the only hope for the party seems to be the awaited judgment of the Supreme Court.

It is not clear whether the judgement would trigger another gale of defections and finally nail the party’s coffin.