The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) reacted to the defection of one of its members, Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State.
NRTC reported that the governor defected on Tuesday after meeting President Bola Tinubu, citing the PDP’s inability to protect him.
However, reacting to the governor’s defection, the PDP, in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Ini Ememobong, described Fubara’s action as pitiful.
READ ALSO: Fubara defects to APC
Ememobong added that the defection served as an example of the old legal maxim Volenti non fit injuria, meaning “to one who is willing, no harm can be done.”
He said: “The National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party received the news of the formal defection of His Excellency, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, the Governor of Rivers State, from our Party to the ruling party. Everyone who followed the developments that culminated in this uneventful defection will recall that the governor willingly travelled the path that took him to this destination.
“Having done so voluntarily, he cannot turn around and accuse our party, or any other person or group, of abandoning or failing to protect him. Whilst a person who is at a crossroad of threats of existential proportion will most likely suffer temporary amnesia caused by trauma, the governor should have nothing less than praise for our party, civil society organisations, and all Nigerians who freely stood up in his defence since this crisis started until he capitulated.”
Ememobong added that the party prayed Fubara would not suffer from Stockholm Syndrome, where a victim falls in love with his captor.
He said they pitied the governor and wished him well despite his defection.Ememobong noted that the situation in Rivers State was a testament to the dysfunctional nature of democracy.
He said: “Where individuals are bigger and stronger than institutions and can use the apparatus of the Federal Government to obfuscate political life out of their opponents and bring them to their knees. Democracy is terribly threatened by acts of this kind, and all well-meaning people should unify in condemning this progressive decline of democratic norms.
READ ALSO: Rivers lawmakers accuse Fubara of insincerity over budget presentation
“Finally, we reiterate to Nigerians and the global community that with the unrelenting disposition of the ruling party towards the attainment of a one-party state and the constriction of the political space, democracy is under severe attack in Nigeria. Everyone must rise together to oppose this ignoble trip toward electoral authoritarianism.”
