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From Fred Itua, Abuja
Poised to reclaim states it lost to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has embarked on a mass membership drive to get some heavyweights into its fold.
One of such moves, it was learnt, has paid off in Kogi State, where the party’s plea to the 2019 governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the state, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has yielded results.
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP, led by its national chairman, Iyiorcha Ayu, had on March 5 attended the wedding of Natasha to Emmanuel Oritsejolomi Uduaghan in Kogi State, a move that was seen as a consolidation of the efforts to woo the social entrepreneur to its fold.
Accordingly, all is now set for the defection of Akpoti-Uduaghan to the PDP this Saturday in Kogi.
In a chat with newsmen, the philanthropist-turned politician confirmed the development.
“Yes, everything is set. We have reached an understanding with stakeholders and our teeming supporters and we going to the PDP,” she said.
A statement from her media directorate which was made available to reporters in Abuja noted that Akpoti-Uduaghan has demonstrated an uncommon knack for purposeful leadership.
“It is an incontrovertible fact that she is miles away from other crops of politicians who are only visible during electioneering. She has been with her people and contributing immensely to alleviate their predicaments.
“The warmly most-talked-about altruistic politician has done so much being a private citizen. Moved by the perennial scarcity of water and the need to uplift her people, she provided potable water supply at strategic locations across Kogi State, empowering hundreds of thousands of women and youths through her impact investment mission and provided succour to the less privileged through donations of food materials and cash.
“Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan also donated three sets of ventilators to the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja to cushion the impact of COVID-19 in the state, the first Nigerian to have made such donation during the early days of the pandemic. On infrastructural development, she constructed the failed portion of the Okene-Lampese-Ibillo federal road (linking Kogi and Edo), Ihima-Ege access road and the Ihima-Ege-Iruvochinomi and Ihima-Imoga roads, all in Kogi, with the last one linking Edo.
“If she has done all of these from her personal resources, it is only wise and appropriate that we support her to a position of authority where her full capacity and the extent of her virtues can be displayed. Moving to the PDP to actualize her dream of contributing more to the development of her people is not just strategic, it is equally deserving. She has the capacity and the people at her back to domesticate governance that seems a rocket science,” the statement read.
