Chief Diekivie Ikiogha, yesterday led some leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and thousands of his supporters to join the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The move, it was gathered, has depleted the ranks of PDP in the state ahead of the 2016 governorship election.
Ikiogha, a founding member of the PDP, embraced the broom revolution at an elaborate ceremony which ended in the evening at Kpansia open field, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital.
Also, members of other political parties, including the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) followed him to the APC.
Leaders of the PDP that defected with him are: Chief Victor Awala, Paul Ajuwa, Mrs. D. Irene, a former commissioner, Prince Abeki as well as over 150 former councillors from 1999 to 2012.
Over 43 non-governmental organisations under the aegis of New Bayelsa Initiative also identified with Ikiogha, who was described as a great grassroots mobiliser.
Ikiogha, a former Bayelsa State Chief of Staff, said to be a trusted and dependable ally of Governor Seriake Dickson, was one of the brains behind the emergence of the governor in 2012.
But indications of a rift between the duo emerged when the governor removed him in controversial circumstances as Chief of Staff and redeployed him to Abuja Liaison Office.
Ikiogha resigned his appointment in October 2014 to contest the House of Representatives seat for Yenagoa/Kolokuma/Opokuma on the platform of the PDP but failed to clinch the ticket.
Addressing the mammoth crowd that came to witness his formal movement to APC, Ikiogha said he decided to quit the PDP because it is a party full of betrayals and deceits.
He said: “The PDP is full of betrayals and deceits. There is lack of internal democracy and it is a party where the highest bidder always has his ways.
“As I left the PDP, I went on my private business until I started receiving calls from my supporters and those who believe in me that I could not quit partisan politics.
“It was then I discovered that I had a family in the APC. I also know that Bayelsa people are yearning for change which the APC represents.
“All those denied opportunities in the PDP are defecting to the APC with me. There are many of them and the solidarity cuts across other political parties including the APGA, Accord Party, Labour Party, among others.”
APC’s national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, who was represented by the National Vice-Chairman, South-South, Hilliard Eta, received Ikiogha and handed him the symbolic broom.
Odigie-Oyegun noted the Dickson-led government of Bayelsa State had received over “N440bn from the federal government with nothing to show for it.”
He appealed to Bayelsans “to retire Governor Seriake Dickson”.
He declared that the occasion was not meant to give Ikiogha a governorship ticket to contest the forthcoming Bayelsa State governorship election but to receive him into the party.
He added that the process of electing a governorship flag bearer for the party would be transparent just like the process that produced Muhammadu Buhari as the party’s Presidential candidate.
Bayelsa State chairman of the APC, Chief Tiwei Orunimighe, said the journey to change Dickson, whom he accused of none performance, had just started.
He said the APC would use the broom to change incompetence that had bedevilled the oil-rich state for so long.
He noted that the doors of APC were open to all politicians with ambitions and aspirations.
It was gathered that Ikiogha, a former Commissioner for Agriculture, would soon formally declare his intention to contest the governorship election.
