‘PDP left us’ — Dickson speaks on defection controversy

____________________________________________________________________

By Lawrence Agbo

Senator Seriake Dickson has defended his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), insisting that it is the party that abandoned him and other loyal members, not the other way around.

Speaking on Politics Today on Channels Television, Dickson said it would be unfair to describe his exit as a personal decision to leave the PDP, stressing instead that the party had drifted from its founding ideals.

“Where we are now, it is not fair to say that I and others who are leaving now have left PDP. It will be more appropriate to say that the PDP left me. PDP left us,” he stated.

“Very sad that before our very eyes, our trusted and loved platform evaporated before our eyes and that is different from leaving,” he added.

The former Bayelsa State governor lamented what he described as the collapse of the party’s legacy, noting that the PDP of past leaders such as Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, and Goodluck Jonathan no longer exists.

“The PDP as I knew it, the PDP as Nigerians have known since its formation, the PDP that I came to be part of … that PDP has since been killed and buried.”

“Whatever is left if the PDP or whatever may be left if the PDP after all the shenanigans cannot be the PDP that i saw, cannot be the PDP that Nigerians entrusted power,” Dickson said.

According to him, internal “shenanigans” and self-serving interests have overtaken the party, eroding its structure and credibility.

He further accused some PDP governors of failing in their responsibility to preserve and nurture the party, likening their actions to “infanticide.”

Dickson said the governors inherited a party that had been carefully built and handed over to them “like a baby,” but alleged that instead of nurturing it, they allowed it to deteriorate due to selfish ambitions.

“The shenanigans that has taken place is like commiting infanticide. A child entrusted to you for you to take care of.”

“The governors, and the other leaders by their negligence, their incapacity to solve these problems, by elevating personal ambition, and personal benefits couldn’t solve these problems to save PDP and I am very sad about it,” he concluded.

His remarks come amid deepening divisions within the PDP, with several high-profile defections and internal disputes raising concerns about the party’s cohesion ahead of future elections.