By Vincent Ujumadu
A MEMBER of the House of Representatives, Charles Odedo, has dumped the crisis-ridden party in Anambra State for the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN.

Consequently, Odedo, who represents Idemili North and South in the House of Representatives on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, hopes to contest this year’s election for a return to the federal house.

His decampment from the party brings to seven the number of PDP federal lawmakers, out of 10, who have left the party in recent time.

Odedo told newsmen yesterday at his Nnobi residence in Idemili South local government area of the state that he had found it difficult to belong to an organization where nobody was clearly in charge, adding that despite all efforts made to unite the party, the crisis had continued.

He said: “I left PDP primarily because of the crisis in the party. As you well know, the primaries for this year’s general elections would have taken place about three months ago, but for the INEC’s request for the extension of time.

“Between the time the primaries would have taken place and this time I am speaking, there had been at least seven judgments concerning PDP in Anambra State. There was one from Abuja High Court, two judgments from Ihiala High Court, one court order from Ekwulobia High Court, another order from FTC High Court, another order from Awka High Court and so on.”

“At present, there are at least three factions of PDP and each is conducting its own primaries. So, it is difficult to belong to such an organization where nobody is clearly in charge and that was why I had to leave.

“I did my best after the February 6, 2010, governorship to reconcile the different factions, but to no avail. The NEC of the party also tried to persuade those in court to withdraw their cases, but rather than doing that, some people are filing more.

“Three months ago, there was just one court case, but today, there are about seven and more are still coming.

“In leaving PDP, I looked at other political parties as they concern my constituency and because ACN won the governorship election 70% in Idemili North and 54% in Idemili South, I decided to join it since it is the most widely accepted party in my constituency, apparently because the leader of the party in the state, Dr. Chris Ngige, is from my local government area which is Idemili South,” Odedo said.

He, however, said he was not expecting to be returned unopposed as the candidate of ACN, adding that he strongly believed in conducting primaries to enable the people choose who they want to stand for election for their party.

The lawmaker, who entered the House of Representatives on July 28, 2008, after a long legal battle that ended at the Court of Appeal, promised that he would execute at least one project in each of the 17 communities that constituted the federal constituency.

He also promised that if reelected, he would discuss with all the communities, with a view to identifying their priorities.