Ihonvbere Dumps PDP, Joins ACN

Professor Julius Ihonvbere, a stalwart of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP and two-time gubernatorial candidate in Edo State, has defected to the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN.

In an address to his teaming supporters who gathered in his country home at Uzebba, Owan West Local Government Area, the professor of political economy and special adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Projects Monitoring and Implementation, chided the PDP for lacking the democratic ethos and vision needed to pilot an emerging democracy like Nigeria.

Ihonvbere who has been repeatedly denied the opportunity to govern the state by the party’s acclaimed godfather, Chief Tony Anenih told the people that his coming into ACN is to show that he has been fired by the courage of his conviction, that a people driven democracy is the only solution to Nigeria’s multi-faceted problems.

He promised to reinforce the leadership in Owan East and West by bringing everybody on board to actualize the coronation of Governor Adams Oshiomhole for a second time in office come July14.

His words: ‘‘Governor Oshiomhole has acquitted himself creditably in governance by helping to build institutional governance, quality roads, hospitals, schools and has created jobs in less than three years of his administration where the PDP failed abysmally to show that governance is about the people’’.

Continuing further, Ihonvbere said, ‘‘a political party where the godfather dictates who gets what in the quiet recesses of his bedroom and claims the heads of everybody in his armpit, cannot deliver the state and Nigeria at large from the mirage of her problems”.

Barrister George Enereba, one of Ihonvbere admirers dubbed his coming into ACN as ‘home coming’ for the activist professor who has fought for the actualization of the present democracy along with other progressive forces who are currently the leaders in ACN where he truly belongs.

Pastor Vero Orekpieje said she is convinced that Ihonvbere’s coming would enlarge the coast and fortunes of ACN in the state with his track record as the people’s general.

Ihonvbere thanked the people for acknowledging that the governor has done creditably well in a short period of three and a half years and deserves a second term in office where PDP has failed for 10 years.

Ihonvbere is joining the ACN two weeks after the first Edo State executive governor, Chief John Oyegun and his deputy, Rev. Peter Obadan joined the party. They were all co-travelers during the struggle of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) for democracy.