- A member of the Rivers House of Assembly, Martins Mannah, has defected to the All progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
- Mannah complained of intimidation and poor welfare management as some of his reasons for defecting to the opposition party in the state
- He was one of Governor Nyesom Wike's strong ally in the 2015 elections
Martins Mannah, a member of the Rivers state House of Assembly, representing Ahoada east constituency I, who was elected on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Once a solid ally of Governor Nyesom Wike during the 2015 elections, Mnnah opened up on alleged intimidation and bad welfare management by the speaker of the House and the governor, Vanguard reports.
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Mannah moved to the APC with over 3000 of his supporters in Ahoada east on Saturday, June 2, claiming that throughout his three years in office, the state government has not approved any project within his constituency.
The lawmaker stated that Rivers state is seriously affected with being opposed to the federal government. Mannah said: “I came here to deliver a simple message and the message is that my people should accept change.
"Rivers State has never been in opposition and we don’t know how to play it. It does not benefit us, but we were deceived into it and we are seeing the result. We have followed the PDP government genuinely and with all commitment but for three years we have not seen any constituency project.
"I apologise for being used to lie to my people. A lot of us in the State Assembly have been under oppression and want to move to APC. We will ensure that PDP does not win in the state come 2019.”
In his acceptance speech to Mannah and his supporters, the state chairman of APC, Ojukaye Flag-Amachree, said that the defectors would not be marginalised in any of the party's affair.
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Flag-Amachree urged the defectors to support APC to unseat the PDP government in the state, adding that when the state re-aligns with the federal government more developments would come to the state.
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com reported that in reaction to the assassination allegation leveled by Wike against the APC-led federal government, the federal government had told the governor to be grateful that he enjoyed immunity from prosecution.
NAIJ.com gathered that the governor had disclosed this during a thanksgiving service to mark the third year anniversary of his administration held at Living Faith Church in D-Line, Port Harcourt.
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Source: Naija.ng