The party said that It is pathetic that the empty deserters had connived with some members of the APC leaders to swindle Governor Uzodinma, who is desperate and jittery by presenting to him a motley crowd of known APC members, thugs and hirelings as defectors from the opposition parties in the state at a very huge cost.

In a press statement signed by Mr Collins Opuruzor, the Publicity Secretary of the party said that the purported 3,000 members of the party said have defected to the APC only exist in the imagination of the APC.

The statement reads: “Our Party has checked through our registers in all the wards in Imo State and can report unequivocally that none of our members except three rejected and politically spent individuals, who have lost all electoral relevance in the state and only fit for a political dustbin like the APC.

Credible intelligence at our disposal indicates that the APC leaders have also planned more of such sham mass defections just to create an impression that the people of Imo State are gravitating towards the APC. Truth is that Imo people have come to a firm decision that Governor Uzodinma is that proverbial rotten tooth which must be removed for the cheeks to chew with ease.”

Continuing, the statement read: “That Governor Uzodinma could fall for such cheap political gimmick to the extent of showboating on national television further exposes that he and his Party, the APC have lost grip and merely clinging at straws, being in mortal fear of imminent electoral defeat in the November 11, 2023 governorship election in Imo State due to their litany of failures in governance.

This comical orchestration further shows that the APC in Imo State has been in confusion, frenzy and distress since the emergence of Senator Samuel Anyanwu as the Governorship candidate of the PDP for the November 11, 2023 governorship election.

Such apprehension explains why the APC has now embarked on desperate endorsement shopping for Governor Uzodinma from compromised individuals and groups; a ploy that has rather diminished the APC in the eyes of the people of Imo State.”

The statement further read: “Instead of addressing its numerous failures in governance, which resulted in escalated insecurity, killings, violence, the collapse of the productive sector, massive treasury looting, terrible infrastructural stagnation and agonising economic hardship in the state in the last four years, the APC is shamelessly resorting to endorsement shopping and diversionary antics that have no bearing to the wellbeing of the people of Imo State.

The APC In Imo State must realise that the people of the state are not looking back in their determination to rescue and take back their state from anti-democratic forces and not even the intimidation, defection gimmicks and endorsement procurement by the APC can sway them in this resolve.

The people of Imo State yearn for the return of the glorious days of the legendary Dee Sam Mbakwe and they have found the Sun rising in that direction with the emergence of Senator Sam Anyanwu as the Governorship candidate of the PDP.

Senator Anyanwu’s candidature embodies the aspiration of the people of Imo State for a humane, responsive, friendly, transparent, purposeful, equitable and people-driven government that will restore security, happiness and productivity in the State.

The PDP counsels the APC to accept its fate and use the remaining months left in its abysmal administration to account for its despicable misrule that has brought Imo State to its current pathetic condition.” (The Sun)