Last ditch effort by politicians either sympathetic to principal opposition party, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to halt another round of defections failed Thursday evening as Professor Tunde Adeniran, one time minister, defeated chairmanship candidate of the party last year, Professor Jerry Gana, a member of the PDP board of trustees, BOT, defected to the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Insider sources say that the move is just the beginning of massive defections from both PDP and APC to SDP in the days to come.
Though report broke earlier on Thursday that a reception ceremony to receive heavy weight PDP members was at the offing at the Ladi Kwali Hall, Sheraton Hotel, Abuja, DAILY INDEPENDENT, exclusively scooped that some politicians from the PDP or still sympathetic to the party tried to dissuade them from doing so.
As gathered, former Senate deputy president, Ibrahim Mantu tried to persuade the defecting politicians against their planned move early in the day.
By evening, however, it appeared that the mission embarked on by Mantu failed. The newspaper confirmed Professors Gana and Adeniran’s presence at the Ladi Kwali Hall, venue of the defection programme.
As also learnt, Thursday’s activities is culmination of wide consultations with diverse political interests across the country. According to an officer of the SDP who spoke to the paper but asked not to go on record, “What people will see in the days ahead is the third force emergence. It is going to be a coalition of interest group from PDP and APC. You have seen with your eyes two members of the PDP who are here today.