Why I Left APC – Hon. Dike

The lawmaker representing Tai Constituency in the Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon. Mathew Nenubari Dike has said that his constituents motivated his defection to the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.

He also gave the good works of the state Governor, Chief (Barr.) Nyesom Ezenwo Wike in the state as one of the reasons why his people urged him to switch political parties.

Hon Dike, who spoke with Journalists at the State Assembly Complex along Moscow Road in Port Harcourt, said, “Moreso, the dividends of democracy is also not accruing to my people because we can’t see anything on ground.

As a representative of the people and having seen the dynamics of politics in the state, particularly and also what is happening in the country, I don’t have what to report back with to my people because you’re going to give them feedback on what is happening.

The people now said, we are not seeing anything we’re also not seeing anything in you.

What is happening within the party which we voted for? You are our leader; you are our representative; the best bet is leave. Change. Leave the platform. Defect.

“I said; if you want me to defect, you’ll not say only me defect. You should rather say let us defect. Since I listen to you, I’ll go with you because I’m not on my own. That’s why last week the people, massively we moved. I took the lead as their leader, as their representative.”

The lawmaker also said that he left his former All Progressives Congress (APC) Party because the party in the state was in a disarray.

“One thing I do know is that the constitution says if all is going well in your party you cannot. In this context, the party is torn apart.

I’m sure you’re all aware that even yesterday (Monday), a faction of the APC held a unilateral stakeholders meeting at Tana Event Center and because they know that the party is in disarray, because they know there is factions in the party, they now set up a reconciliatory committee,” the lawmaker stated, adding that “it is enough on that note to know that if you’re not comfortable in a particular system, if that system can’t foster your political interest, its allowed that you can defect.”

Even APC at the national level also do know or understand that there are factions in APC in Rivers and they set up a committee headed by the former governor of Lagos state, Bola Tinubu to reconcile the factions in the Rivers state.”

The state lawmaker has no kind words for critics of his defection, saying that serial defectors have no moral basis to criticize his actions. “One of the national legislators also did say that I’m going there for crumbs. These are serial political defectors. When it was their time, when they defected it was not bad. If Matthew defect is bad,” he said.

Apart from the good works of the state governor which informed his peoples’ decision to move to another political party, his marginalization by the state executives of the party because of his support for governorship ambition of Senator Magnus Abe, also strengthened his decision to quit the APC.

He told the newsmen: “In one of my interviews which I granted, I said the state party chairman should tell the people when last he invited me to a meeting in the state because I was pro Abe in the APC. I was not invited; I have not been invited over the years to any meeting of the APC even in my local government area.”

Asked if his defection meant his abandonment of the Ogoni governor in 2019 campaign, he replied, “of course, you can’t predict the future; you can’t predict tomorrow . . . and I’m saying we will still have it but at the moment, it may not be now.”

It would be recalled that Hon Matthew Nenubari Dike two weeks ago, moved to the PDP with more than four thousand of his supporters.