Spokesperson for the Labour Party in the 2023 Presidential Election, Kenneth Okonkwo, has said that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) will soon implode, warning that those defecting into its ranks will ultimately regret their decision.

Okonkwo made this statement in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Monday following the wave of defections into the APC, saying that the defections are not a sign of strength, but rather a reflection of politicians? desperation for self-preservation in the face of insecurity and political uncertainty. ?APC is already imploding, and will continue to implode until they are blown to smithereens. And we are talking two years to the election. I?ve made it clear that everybody joining APC now will regret it, because how do you think a nation of 200 million persons will tolerate to continue to be in ad infinitum poverty, ad infinitum hunger and hardship? Power resides with the people. When the people will speak, all these walls will crack.?

He also rejected rumours that he was planning to join the APC, firmly distancing himself from what he described as a party that had inflicted ?hunger, hardship, tears, and blood? on Nigerians.

Okonkwo declared, ?Contemplating that me, that entered politics for the welfare of the people, shall join an APC that is insensitive to the people?s welfare, that has punished Nigerians with hunger and hardship ? The World Bank report now said that Nigeria will sink further into poverty till 2027. That in Tinubu?s regime, there is no hope for recovery from poverty. And they gave their reasons ? Structural economic weaknesses, dependence on oil revenue, national fragility, in other words, national conflicts.

?Look at what?s happening in Plateau State. More than 100 persons have died, massacred by unknown people, and the president was in Paris and could not even cut his travel short to commiserate with people from Plateau State. Look at what?s happening in Rivers State. A president declared martial law and removed constitutionally elected representatives of the people. And look at what?s happening in Benue State. People dying. All the things this president has given Nigeria is tears and blood. And you want to say Kenneth Okonkwo will contemplate going into such an association??

?You want my life and enthusiasm to be drained? No! I reject APC as presently constituted,? he added.

Okonkwo then revealed that he has joined a grand coalition of opposition forces determined to unseat Tinubu?s government in the 2027 elections. He insisted that forming a broad alliance is vital to rescue Nigeria from what he termed an ?incurably bad? administration. ?We are moving in that direction to solidify the unity amongst all the opposition forces to take out this government,? he said.

When challenged that the coalition might become another union of ?strange bedfellows,? Okonkwo argued that unusual alliances are sometimes necessary during national crises. ?The strangest of fellows can always come together when there is a national crisis, as we have now,? he said, recalling how the APC itself was formed in 2013 by merging disparate political groups to defeat an incumbent government in 2015.

With less than two years remaining before the 2027 polls, Okonkwo concluded that Nigerians will eventually rise to reclaim their power and that the APC?s dominance will not survive the mounting discontent across the country. (AriseNews TV)

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