A former national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Sen. Barnabas Gemade, has blamed the culture of impunity for his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP to the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
The senator representing Benue northeast senatorial district in the National Assembly said this on Tuesday when he returned his expression of interest and nomination forms at the SDP National Secretariat in Abuja.
Gemade was one of the 14 All Progressives Congress (APC) senators who recently decamped from the ruling party to PDP.
The lawmaker said his decision was borne out of his yearning to belong to a party where decency, honesty, equity and justice will be emulated.
He said, “Politics is all about times and seasons. And the time and season of this time belongs to the SDP. The reason is that so many issues have bedevilled a lot of parties.
“When I joined the PDP, it was an excellent party; very fine administration and rule of law applied, fairness and equity obtained. Thereafter, impunity took over and that is why so many left and went to other parties and I also went to the APC.
“Those problems cropped up again and it was necessary to move; if you don’t condone something and it is something you cannot remove from where you are: you remove yourself. I have removed myself because I need to be where there is decency, honesty, a level playing ground and there is equity and justice.”
He attributed the raging insecurities in Nigeria to bad governance, adding that lack of internal democracy in the APC made him to seek an alternative platform.
“Insecurity in Benue is part of the poor governance that we saw. Benue is not in isolation in Nigeria. There is insurgents and high insecurity that perverted this nation and the national security system was not up and doing for a very long time. And our people have suffered.
“But that in itself is not the only reason a man can leave a political party; the internal issues of a political party is what determines whether their members are comfortable or not. And it is the lack of internal democracy that made me to move out of the party (APC) where I was,” he added.
The SDP National Secretary, Alhaji Shehu Gabam, while welcoming the Senator, said that he was very happy to have a serving lawmaker joining.
Gabam expressed hope that he will lead other serving federal lawmakers to the SDP.
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