A FORMER Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Ibim Semenitari, has defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Semenitari served in the administration of former Rotimi Amaechi as Commissioner for Information and Communications.
She resigned from the All Progressives Congress (APC) in July this year but had been quiet about her next political destination.
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She was welcomed back to the ruling party in her local government of Okrika by the executive chairman of the council, Akuro Tobin; a former Rivers State Commissioner for Health, Sampson Parker; and other party stalwarts on Saturday.
Semenitari, a solid ally to Amaechi and former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), had dumped the APC on July 10, 2022 after transmitting a formal letter to the APC chairman in Ward 5, Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State.
A leadership crisis in the Rivers State APC has led to a gale of resignations and defections from the party in the state.
On her defection to the PDP, Semenitari told journalists that the ruling party in the state was her first home.
She said “My first political home was the PDP. I moved with my former boss (Rotimi Amaechi), who was the leader of the PDP in Rivers State, until when the party structure was taken away from him.
“Every politics must benefit the people. I left the APC for personal reasons. I could not provide for my teeming supporters and those who saw reason to belong to the APC because of me.”
She added that her father (Dr Gabriel Tobby) was deputy governor of the state to ex-governor Peter Odili on the platform of the PDP, saying it was natural that she return to her former “political home.”
Semenitari said, “Now that an Opobo son (Sim Fubara) is contesting for the governor of Rivers State on the platform of the PDP, we all must support him to win the election in 2023.
“We all must place ourselves in a position to speak for our people. I need to find a position to speak for my teeming supporters and the good people of Opobo Kingdom.
“That is my only attraction to the PDP and nothing more. Yes, I joined the PDP today (Saturday),” she added.
A reporter with the ICIR
A Journalist with a niche for quality and a promoter of good governance