Former Presidential Candidate Dumps Party, Returns To PDP

This development was disclosed on Wednesday by the Chairman of the PDP Caretaker Committee in Cross River State, Effiok Cobham, during a press briefing in Calabar.

TrackNews Online recalls Duke, who is a two-term former Governor of Cross River State between 1999 and 2007, defected from PDP to the Social Democratic Party, where he contested the 2019 presidential election.

However, when asked on Wednesday to confirm the speculations that the former Governor had returned to the PDP, Cobham said, “Yes, he has registered.”

This development comes few days after the current Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade dumped the PDP and joined the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

It will be recalled that Ayade said he joined APC to help President Muhammadu Buhari in dealing with the challenges facing the country.

He added that he defected to the APC because of the leadership qualities of the President, adding that he had no issue with the PDP.

He said: “I feel depressed when the nation is challenged with security issues.

“Instead of us rising as an orgasmic whole to see how we can support the President to deal with these foreign herders that are colonising our various roads and farms, we rather sit back; we tend to create an impression as if the government is not doing well.”

He added: “As to whether there are issues in the PDP, no. The party stood by me all through the way,” the governor said during his appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday.

“In any other legal issue that I have had, PDP had stood with me. PDP gave me the opportunity to be a senator; PDP gave me the opportunity to be governor. I would never have any time to pull down PDP. I have integrity, character, and honour. My politics have ethics. My decision to join APC is to join the President to reduce the tension in the country.”