Frontline Rivers State governorship aspirant, Prince Tonye Princewill, has defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after being schemed out of the race in favour of Barrister Nyesome Wike, purportedly the anointed candidate of President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife Patience.

Princewill has secured the Labour Party ticket and has swiftly moved to lure the Ijaw and Ogoni with a view to winning the 2015 guber battle. While The Prince is Ijaw, the Ogoni are angry at having been allegedly shortchanged by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the choice of its governorship candidate. Prince said he took the decision to leave PDP for Labour ‘for the sake of our children’.

He said in a statement made available to News Express this morning from Port Harcourt: “After extensive consultation on the next steps to follow, I and my team have decided that we no longer have a future in the PDP and that win or lose, going forward, we will now be building our future here in the Labour Party. Just as we refused to return to APC having since left its parent organisation in 2010, our departure from PDP is also final. It was not an easy decision to make, I made many friends there and I still have a lot of respect for many men and women within the party, just as I do within the APC, but this is not the reason I entered politics. I came to change the politics, not to maintain the status quo or make friends. I no longer feel I have enough allies or a willing platform to achieve this goal and so I must move on. The struggle continues.

“Some have asked that I maintain a dignified silence and remain within the PDP, or that I should quit politics altogether. But I need to be able to look my children in the eye. This is not the Nigeria I can defend, because politics and its conduct are the very foundations on which nations are built. I refuse to give up on Nigeria and so I cannot give up on its politics. Politics, as I say time and time again, is too too important to be left to politicians. I only wish more of us appreciate this and join me where I think we really can make a difference. This pattern truly is not sustainable, the status quo will no longer hold. I have to do this for the sake of our children.

“I would like to thank the Labour Party and its national leadership for giving me a reception fit for a king, and the warm way the state leadership have embraced our arrival. I always complain that our political parties lack ideology and do not have an identity of their own but that position cannot be leveled at Labour. With a social democratic ideology, a detailed manifesto and policies that closely mirror mine, I feel most at home here. Politics does not always have to be about just winning. It can be about doing the right thing as well. Finally, unlike previous political decisions that I took with only my political family, this consultation cut across all walks of my life. I want to thank you all for your contributions. From social media to private communications and the political equivalent of smoke filled rooms you took the time to lend us your voice. I want to thank you for all your contributions; even when we disagreed.

“With the help of the BoT Chairman, our able Chairmen at national and state levels and the executive of the party here in Rivers State, I want to use this opportunity to reach out to all aggrieved PDP and APC aspirants who have their people’s interests above their own, potential aspirants who never thought politics would give them a chance and opinion leaders who are left everyday to pick up the pieces of bad governance to come and join the next government of Rivers state. The Bible says, ‘When the righteous rule, the people will rejoice.’ I make bold to say, the right people have arrived. Stop wasting your time on politics as usual, and come and rejoice. Rivers state needs choice, not imposition. We choose to be free.”

•Photo shows Tonye Princewill.

Update news