THE national leadership of All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday, granted automatic Board of Trustees membership to the former Speaker, House of Representatives, Honourable Ghali N’Abba, who just defected from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party to the opposition party.

At a formal event held at the APC national secretariat in Abuja, the national chairman of APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun said: “this is one of the few truly beautiful events that I have been privileged to preside over. 

“For the APC, it has been a matter of quality. Today, we are recovering a personality of indisputable quality into our ranks. A man of achievements, a man of principle and a man who has displayed in no uncertain terms that he share the ideals our party.

“For a long time, he struggled within the fold of the PDP to see if he can steer the ship back to safe waters. But of course, all that was to no effect because, like he said, the dubious characters have taken over the PDP and so, it was no longer in the mood for change.”

On his part the former Speaker said “my total sum of my communication was that I have decided to leave the party that I have been a member for the last 16 years.

“When I and other senior members of the party left the party between 2005 and 2007, a lot of things happened that we thought were undemocratic. We had to leave the party. Eventually, some of us returned after the late Umar Yar’Adua made some certain promises about change in the party, which never happened.

“I believe that this country, more than any other time in our history, needs change, particularly on the top. In the last 16 years, there has been misrule in this country. Nigerians are being misruled by successive presidents of the PDP. Some of us fought over this and to no success. I believe that the momentum today is in favour of the APC, and we should never allow it to go down.

“It is in that quest that I feel, having resigned from the PDP, I must join the APC, so that I can help to roll that momentum and that it is quite remarkable that since yesterday (Monday), I have been receiving calls from nook and crannies of Nigeria. That is to show you that the APC is a national party.”