By USMAN ALIYU

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as a hype and show of shame reports on the defection of its members to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo.

This is contained in a statement issued by the party’s state Assistant Publicity Secretary, Mr Victor Osheobo, on Saturday in Benin.

He said ‘the hype of a purported defection of 64 leaders of the party to an unnamed faction of the PDP in the state was as an umbrella of lies emanating from the failed ruling party’.

Osheobo therefore called on Gov. Godwin Obaseki, his deputy, Philip Shaibu, who he said were not even PDP members, “and the rented chairman of the party, Dr Anthony Aziegbemhin, to be wary of this kind of self-deceit laced with a bogus and unfounded figure of defectors.”

He said Aziegbemhin, a man who could bite the very finger that fed him any day and anytime, summed up the reality of this charade when he admitted openly that since 2008, the PDP had been losing Edo North, where the defectors hailed from.

“Ironically, none of the so-called decampee leaders could have mustered any modicum of support from their bases.

“Their antecedents tallies with that of the governor as a serial betrayer, and the deputy governor, Mr Shaibu, a prodigal son who regularly and publicly disowns and disgraces his supposed political ‘father’.

“Two of the demampees like Sen. Francis Alimikhena and Mr Lucky James, stood out like sore thumbs.

“The Senator who returns to his vomit in his desperation to return to the Senate, knowing fully well that the position is neither his birthright nor his inheritance; and Mr James, a political trader, whose greed and insatiable appetite for relevance is public knowledge.

“In conclusion, we liken the ‘Edo PDP’ and their new members as figurative jesters, typical of a drowning political party that has lived its life solely on betrayals, falsehood, fraud and propaganda.

“We wish them failure in their endeavours,” the statement read in part.

Meanwhile, the PDP in the state and government functionaries were yet to react to this development. (NAN)