By Omini Ikpi
As the wind of defection blows across the political landscape, a former aide to immediate past Cross River State governor, Liyel Imoke, has broken ranks with the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and headed to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Nnana Arikpo, who functioned in the last administration as an aide to Imoke on Security Matters, conveyed his resignation to the PDP through a letter dated, January 7, 2016 and addressed to the PDP Ward Chairman, Ijiman Ward, Ugep, Yakurr Local Government Area, Cross River State. “I wish to formally inform you that I have resigned my membership of the PDP from today, 7th January, 2016”, Arikpo stated.
But in a swift reaction posted on Facebook, the PDP in Arikpo’s Ijiman Ward, Ugep, issued a statement signed by one Etim J. U. welcoming “…the resignation of Mr Nnana Arikpo from the party with a sigh of relief” and used “the medium to advise all other members who sabotaged the effort of the party in the last election in the ward to be decisive in their loyalty to the PDP especially now that the party is being positioned for greater task ahead”.
While receiving Arikpo to the APC, party leader in the area, Charles Ogwa, commended his decision to quit the PDP and assured him that unlike the PDP, “the APC is a party that is just and fair and abhors the kind of impunity that is the PDP’s second nature”.
Investigations by www.calitown.com point to the fact that Arikpo’s defection to the APC is tied to the recent defection of Goddy Jedy Agba to the APC; he enjoys a very cordial relationship with the Obudu born prince. It was also discovered that Arikpo is one of the brains behind the subtle but effective political inroads made by Agba in Ugep, culminating in the recent hosting of the Ugep monarch, Obol Ofem Ubana, in the Abuja residence of Agba several weeks ago, a visit many people believe has a very serious political implication.
