Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, who represents Abia South in the National Assembly, has officially resigned from the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and defected to the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Abaribe made the announcement on Wednesday, December 31, at Nike Lake Resort in Enugu, during an event where former Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Mr Peter Obi, also formally joined the ADC.
Speaking at the venue, Abaribe said his resignation from APGA was already effective.
“Let me also announce that this morning I resigned from the All-Progressive Grand Alliance,” the lawmaker said.
He declared that he was now fully aligned with the ADC and would be moving politically with Obi, whom he described as their leader.
“So as of now, I am fully in ADC. Following my brother and our leader, Mr Peter Obi, I wish all of us well, and I know that we’re going to get there,” Abaribe said.
He also referred to remarks he had made in an earlier interview about how change would happen, using an expression he said is well understood.
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“When I was given my last interview, and they were asking me, how do you think it will happen? I told them, Mboru. Every woman knows what Mboru means. Now it’s Mboru,” he said.
Abaribe said the ADC would serve as the platform for a larger movement determined to confront Nigeria’s troubles and remove the party that has dominated the last decade.
“When the time comes, the whole of us are going into ADC, and we shall remove the cancer that has held Nigeria down since 2015.
“We will remove that party that promised change but brought death and destruction to Nigeria,” he said.
First Daily earlier reported that Obi had called on Nigerians and other opposition forces to rally around a broad coalition under the ADC as a vehicle for national renewal.
“This decision is guided solely by patriotism and national interest. I now respectfully call on my political associates, the Obidient Movement and opposition leaders across the country to join this broad national coalition under the African Democratic Congress,” Obi said.
He added: “History will not forgive silence in moments of national peril,” warning that failure to act now would have lasting consequences.