“For the APC, it is . . . good night.” With those words, Chief Tom Ikimi, ex-Minister of Information, signalled his intention to kill the political hopes of the All Progressives Congress (APC), a party of which until recently he was a chieftain.

On Thursday morning in Benin City, Ikimi formally decamped to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which is the opposition party in his home state of Edo, but which controls the centre in Nigeria.

Ikimi cited his desire to protect his dignity as the main reason why he was leaving APC and stressed that he wouldn’t be seeking any political positions in PDP.

Amid cheers from PDP faithful at the party’s Edo State Secretariat, Chief Ikimi informed that his friends from neighbouring states will soon join him en masse in declaring for PDP.

While welcoming Ikimi to the PDP fold, the party’s Edo State Chairman, Chief Dan Obih, insisted that Ikimi would be a big plus to the party’s fortunes.

“While you (Ikimi) were in the APC we always knew you are the one we needed to take away from that party,” Orbih said to Ikimi while praising his decision to switch camp.

Orbih also used the occasion to condemn the Edo State budget presentation made by Governor Adams Oshiomhole. He said while he was glancing through the budget he did not see anything significant that would change the lot of Edo people.

Orbih also informed that his party is suing the Edo governor in a state high court over the fact that he chose to present his budget to the ‘APC faction’ of the divided Edo State House of Assembly. He argued that the budget was not presented to a properly constituted house.

The Edo State House of Assembly has been engulfed in crisis for months, culminating in the move of APC members to the old legislative chambers located in the GRA of Benin City to conduct legislative duties after suspended PDP members of the house defied a Federal Appeal Court order to vacate the precincts of the Anthony Enahoro Complex where regular sittings of the House has been holding in recent years.

•Photo shows Tom Ikimi.

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