My Defection To The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) From The African Action Congress (AAC): The Whys And The Wherefores

Being text of Chief Akpo Bomba Yeeh, AAC Deputy Gov’ship candidate’s address to the Press on his experiences while in AAC and current fears after his defection.

My name is Mr.  Akpo  Bomba Yeeh, a retired Superintendent of Police and native of  Kaani Town (Ward 6)  in Khana Local Government  Area of Rivers State. As a born-again Christian, I serve God faithfully and  follow  peace  with  men and women as the Word of God commands me to do. Yet as a human being, I have some frailties but by the grace of God, these do not include betrayal of fellow men even if  I have severally been betrayed,  as I shall explain shortly.

Following a deep spiritual and mental reflection over the political affairs of the past weeks  and  the  injustice and other inhuman acts unleashed on me and my supporters, by the Rivers State authority of the All Progressives Congress which adopted  my Party, the AAC, for purposes of the Governorship Election of March 9, 2019, coupled with my utter neglect even by own principal, the governorship candidate, Engr. Awara Biokpomabo, I have decided to hold my political  fate right in my own palms. Failure to do this would cause the voyage of my political life to be bound in shallows and in miseries.

It is in order not to be consigned to the dustbin of perpetual misery,  sorrow  and  depression by the  political machinations of the party that adopted me as  deputy governorship candidate that I have defected to the People’s Democratic Party to work with the Governor of Rivers State, His Excellency, Chief (Barr.) Ezebunwo  Nyesom Wike, alias Mr. Projects, to realize his greater Rivers vision.

Gentlemen of the Press, it is for the reason of detailing my grievances against the APC that you have been invited. The explanations I shall make here are for the benefit of AAC leadership, APC members in Rivers State, my prayer partners and helpers, my well-wishers, my supporters, my friends and the general public.

As a highly trained police officer with a regimented life of respect and loyalty to superiors, in my dealings with my principal, the governorship candidate, Engr. Biokpomabo, though he is much younger by age, I exhibited so much loyalty, respect, decorum, patience and in such a warm atmosphere of love and understanding that he himself cannot help but testify that he met a man whose type is in short supply.

Amidst this kind of relationship, some days before the March 9, 2019 Governorship and State House of Assembly elections, the APC hierarchy in the state told me that after my party, the AAC had won the election against the PDP, I would not only defect with my principal to the APC but also surrender my deputy governorship position to another human being of like passions as I. To make this unholy directive of the APC legally binding on me, I was asked to sign willy nilly a letter of resignation prepared aforetime and addressed to my principal. By that letter, I would resign from being deputy governor without any misunderstanding or quarrel with my governor. Behind this nasty arrangement were the so-called Hon. Ogoni sons who are power-drunk, people who think that the earth belongs to them.

This callous demand of me which cannot be found in the world’s recorded history of politics did not only smack of humiliating me but also of dehumanizing  me, a retired police chief with so much career experience and security expertise; a retired police chief whose gallantry as mobile police commander brought peace and tranquility to several crisis-torn areas around Nigeria. Yet, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, having studied the letter closely and identified windows of redress, I signed the document that was meant to demean my person and detract from my humanity.

I was reliably informed that the Minister of Transportation disbursed at least Thirty Million Naira (N30,000,000.00) to me to work with but behold, not even one kobo strayed into my hand. My distress phone calls to the Minister of Transportation, the Right Honourable  Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, were not responded to nor were his text messages bordering on the security of my family and key supporters replied. I called Hon. Emmanuel Deeyah for him to convene a Stakeholders meeting to chart the way forward concerning the lingering election matter. Honourable   Deeyah said he had left the state for Abuja. I called Hon. Victor Giadom to request a possible convening of a Stakeholders meeting to chart the way forward given the case of the election at hand but Hon. Giadom said such a meeting should come up after the election had been concluded. I called Hon. Ngofa to ask for a possible meeting to discuss the next possible action but he said I should call the Chairman of the APC who would invite the rest of them. Yet in all these, I had no dime to move out; I had no security; I had no safe accommodation.

A day to the election, my principal was adequately mobilized to mobilize the electorate in his area for the election. As should be expected, the authority of the APC gave him money, security, vehicles and, for good measure, flown in a chopper to his community with a lot of pomp and circumstance, in a manner befitting of  his position. Whereas I was supposed to by my principal’s assistant, I was treated like just an appendage. The little preparation I made for the election depended on the miserable Two Million Naira that Engr. Awara Biokpoma gave me.

While my principal  was going about his business under tight security cover, I was left alone to decide whether to live or to die as I was at the mercy of the vagaries of the present tensed security situation in the state following the lingering election matter. What’s more, while I was squatting in a private house with all the risks thereof,  my principal who was in a hotel kept telling me that he was living in the hotel with money donated  by his friends as the party was not taking care.

My reaching out to some persons to explain the financial straits, insecure condition and utter neglect which I was encountering was done under disguise.

My principal and the APC knew that my family, my close aides and I were exposed to bad security weather, that I did not have decent accommodation and could not go out to fend for ourselves, but did not bat an eyelid.

Getting through to my principal on phone was by a stroke of luck.

I applied to the Rivers State Commissioner of Police for the  provision of security personnel and vehicle but there was no security cover to go out and follow the application. And in any case, with would I maintain the both the personnel and the vehicle(s)? 

I heard about the legal action instituted against the INEC and the PDP by my principal only on radio. He would rather use strangers to fight his party’s legal matter than confide in me and get wise counsel from me. Check his public speeches and even his legal action documents whether you will find even a mistaken reference to me.

Generally, I was ignored but I was patient and when I exhausted my patience, I took on longsuffering; yet no help came my way from a party that adopted me as its deputy governorship candidate. Thus it dawned on me that evil was intended against me.

I exhausted all avenues of proving to the APC authority that betrayal was not in my character but I was rebuffed. My own principal took me so much for granted that he convinced himself that I even lacked the capacity to reason to leave the party. Surprisingly, it was when it dawned on them that I was leaving the party that all those who saw me as a piece of wood started calling my relatives to tell me to come back so they would lodge me in the moon and the stars and provide the money that would out-count a Nigeria’s annual budget. What ashame!

Gentlemen of the press, if you diligently investigate the points I have raised above and find one to be false, then conclude that all I have told you today are lies.

As someone once said, while I cannot avoid growing old, I can certainly avoid growing cold. I can boast that I am an illustrious son of Ogoni and a treasured leader of my community. It is this same me that those who adopted me as their candidate rubbished and pushed to the wall and worse still, wanted to  kill  by exposing me to an unbearable insecure condition.

Gentlemen of the Press, amidst the threats to my life and those of my nuclear and extended family members who have known no peace since I  took the decision to leave the party that was using my face and not my being, I strongly believe that the Almighty God whom I serve without guile,  is my refuge and fortress.  Onto Him do I hand over the lives of my family, my supporters and my humble self. I joined politics to further serve God and humanity, not to endanger my family’s life. I was managing my life as a retired police chief but I was not starving.

I, therefore, declare before you all this day that because my action of defecting to the PDP was occasioned by man’s inhumanity to me and not for any selfish gain, generations of the participants in all the satanic gang-ups to eliminate the lives of the innocent shall be visited with  such wrath of God that the world has never experienced.