Ahead of the 2027 general elections, no fewer than 5,000 members of the Labour Party, Peoples Democratic Party, and All Progressives Grand Alliance have defected to the All Progressives Congress in Enugu State.
The Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Chief Uche Nnaji, Enugu APC Chairman, Chief Ugochukwu Agballah; the member representing Udi-Ezeagu Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Sunday Umeha; the Director General of Raw Materials Research and Development Council, Prof Nnanyelugo Ike Muonso, and other party stalwarts received the defectors during a rally at Aku town in Igbo-Etiti Local Government Area of the state, on Monday.
Speaking at the event, the minister stated that the defection into the APC across the state shows that the people are beginning to acknowledge the projects being executed by the President Bola Tinubu administration in the state.
Nnaji, however, expressed disappointment at what he called “misapplication of resources and high taxation in Enugu State,” a development he said has worsened economic hardship under the watch of Governor Peter Mbah in the state.
He said, “Today in Enugu, we are facing a major economic quagmire.
“We are number two from the bottom as the most expensive city in Nigeria. Enugu is a civil service town, but still, we are the second most expensive city in Nigeria.
“What is the problem? It’s because of the type of tax the government has imposed on our people.
“A hawker, a small girl selling ordinary sachet water, pays between N300 and N500 every day. If you calculate it, he or she is paying over N100, 000 a year.
“If that money is being properly utilised, our teeming young men, the youths and women will have free education, they will have good health facilities for our children, and they will have good infrastructure for the state.
“Today we don’t have all these because our taxes are not being applied where it should be applied.”
While commending a former House of Assembly candidate under the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Celestine Attah, for leading members of APGA, LP, and the PDP in the local government into the APC, Nnaji promised more employment for young people from the area and more federal infrastructure in the state.
The minister said that APC in the state has been repositioned to take over the government of the state in 2027 and appealed to the people to support the party as well as the re-election of President Bola Tinubu in order to attract more federal appointments and infrastructure to the state.
“The coming election will not be like the previous one because right now we have a party; before we didn’t have a party, APC before was a mercantile party, a party they use for trading in Enugu state, they use it to trade with PDP.
“But now all the moles who were trading with the party have been shown the way out,” he said.
In his remarks, the state chairman of APC, Chief Agballah, thanked Tinubu for the ongoing reconstruction of Ninth Mile – Opi – Markudi road which is also being made a dual carriage way, as well as other federal projects in the state.
He said that for many years, under the governance of the party, Igbo-Etiti people supported for 26 years, the entire local government was completely inaccessible due to the complete collapse of road infrastructure in the LGA.
He disclosed that it was not until the emergence of Tinubu’s APC administration that they had ever voted for.
