Jethro Ibileke/Benin

A former State Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Edo State, Mr. Godwin Erhahon, has denied reports that he was among those who are planning to defect from the party.

Erhahon who made the denial in a statement he issued on Sunday in Benin, berated the defectors, describing their reasons for defection as too personal and too selfish.

“My attention has been drawn to the activities of some recent defectors from APC who are dropping my name as one of the leaders that have resolved to defect from APC.

“Reports reaching me from my associates across Edo State say that the defectors are going about telling aggrieved APC members that I have agreed to defect to one of the opposition parties at the expiration of the ongoing period of mourning my late wife who died last June.

“I hereby assure all that I have no intention to defect from APC.

“While I share the grievances of those who are protesting the politics of bitterness, exclusion, victimization and blackmail that [have] recently bedevilled our hitherto united and harmonious APC, I have no plan to quit my party for such usurpers and opportunists or whosoever.

Erhahon who is also a former State Chairman of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), said he share the grouse of his associates from the CPC across the country over how President Muhammadu Buhari has abandoned them after years of toiling with him.

While admitting that the grievances are, to the essence to which they are true, justified and as such, deserve urgent redress, he however dismissed the reasons put forward by the alleged defectors as being “too personal and too selfish to erode our faith in the sincere commitment of President Buhari to salvage Nigeria from the decay to which past leaders have plundged our beloved country.”

“I therefore appeal to my fellow patriots in APC and beyond to endure and tolerate the offensive antics of those who want to selfishly claim the glory for our common achievement as APC.

“Let us continue to support President Buhari in the challenging task of rebuilding our vandalized and looted country.

“Everyone should note that as the former State Chairman who led the CPC legacy into APC in the merger of 2013 in Edo State, as co-founder and not as decampee, I can neither belong to a faction nor submit to the dictatorship or manipulation of any self-serving leader or cabal.

“At the risk of continuing victimization and deprivation, I shall continue to speak the truth as I know it in my belief that time will always vindicate the just,” Erhahon said.