FORMER Governor of Delta State, Emmanuel Uduaghan, says he left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) because he wants to be in a better position to support President Muhammadu Buhari in his efforts at uniting and developing the Niger Delta region.

Uduaghan, who ruled Delta State for eight years as a PDP member, said Buhari has demonstrated commendable interest in bringing a permanent solution to the Niger Delta, hence the need for people of the region to encourage and support him.

“Politics is about interest. I’m from the Niger Delta and I managed a lot of crises in Niger Delta,” Uduaghan said.

“Sometimes I went to the creeks and engaged the boys, and my principle when I was managing the Niger Delta was out of engagement, and the current APC government has succeeded in managing the crisis they have met through engagement.

“The President was seeing a lot of leaders from the Niger Delta while the Vice President went from state to state of oil-producing states, making a lot of engagements, and agreements were reached.

“Nobody at that level had gone from state to state before in Nigeria, this was the first time and of course if that is happening, they need to be supported by those of us from the Niger Delta who are passionate about Niger Delta so that in moving forward we can have solutions to the crisis of Niger Delta.”

Uduaghan also said that the Buhari administration has brought lots of developmental projects into the Niger Delta region, such as have never been experienced in the state.

“For the first time a rail line came to Delta, for the first time the gas city which we have been talking about, a committee has been officially inaugurated, and for the first time we have human capital development projects, school feeding; a lot is happening in the Niger Delta,” he said.

“So for me, let me join the party to be able to effect changes because we cannot achieve anything by working from the outside in the Niger Delta. Some of us have to join the APC train and many people are going to come with me so that we can achieve a lot more in the Niger Delta for the APC government.”

Uduaghan thus becomes the second former Governor of a South-South state to cross-carpet to the APC, following a similar move by Godswill Akpabio, former Governor of Akwa Ibom state.

However, unlike Akpabio, who many said defected to the ruling party in order to avoid being investigated and prosecuted for corruption, Uduaghan is believed to have joined the APC in order to actualise his senatorial ambition.

In June this year, Uduaghan was reported as saying that he would pursue his senatorial ambition in 2019, after having voluntarily given it up in 2015.

“The stability of the state was very important to me. I needed to concentrate on the state and prepare it for a peaceful transition; otherwise, I have all the machinery to win the seat if I had so wanted it like I do now,” Uduaghan was quoted as saying.

“I have not stepped down for anybody and I am not going to even contemplate stepping down for anyone. In fact, I have put my hands on the plough and there is no going back. By the grace of God, we would be in Abuja in 2019.”

The Delta South Senatorial District seat in the National Assembly is currently occupied by James Manager of the PDP and many say it will take some battle for Uduaghan to wrest the party’s ticket off him, hence the reason for his defection.

Also, Uduaghan had, in the not-too-distant past, criticised the APC, especially picking on one of the party’s governorship aspirant for the 2019 election, Pat Utomi, popular economist and academic-turned politician. Utomi had contested for the presidency in the last two general elections.

While addressing some APC supporters in Ughelli, in June 2017, Utomi accused former governors of Delta State, including Uduaghan, of mortgaging the future of the people by constantly increasing the state’s debt profile.

In response, Uduaghan described Utomi as a confused man who does not even know what he wants. “He has contested the presidential election; he now wants to be a governor. I think he should start from his ward; he should contest the post of councillor,” he mocked. But Utomi responded by saying that “a good councillor would have done much better for the people than Uduaghan did as governor”.

Uduaghan became Governor of Delta State after the tenure of James Ibori, who just returned to the country after spending time in prison in the United Kingdom for money laundering and corruption.

He (Uduaghan)  was also briefly investigated for complicity in the bribery scandal involving former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, during the 2015 general election. The EFCC, at the time, said there were indications that Uduaghan and a former House of Representatives member, Ndudi Elumelu, received the sum of N450 million bribe from Alison-Madueke.