Defection: Rivers ex-Commissioner, Parker, Never Our Member, Says APC

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All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers says Dr Sampson Parker, a former Commissioner for Health in the state, was never a member of the party.

Mr Ogbonna Nwuke, Spokesman for APC in Rivers stated this in a statement in Port Harcourt on Monday.

Parker, who served under the administration of ex-Governor Chibuike Amaechi, has defected to the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP).

Nwuke said a dummy that the former commissioner was a member of the APC was sold to the public, while being admitted into the PDP fold.

He said it was another attempt aimed at deceiving and hoodwinking unsuspecting members of the public by Governor Nyesom Wike and the PDP.

“Dr Parker, like Barrister Nyesom Wike, the Governor of Rivers State served in the administration of Mr Chibuike Amaechi as the Commissioner for Health. Prior to his elevation to the position of the Commissioner for Health, Dr Parker served as a personal doctor to the current Minister of Transportation”.

According to Nwuke, when Amaechi and his friends decided to leave the PDP for the APC, Dr Parker remained stoutly in the PDP.

“At no time did Dr Parker, who later emerged in Abuja as a member of the Green Party after the monumental defeat of the PDP at the national level in 2015, ever join the APC. It is on record that the records of the APC, both in the Rivers and at the national level, do not have the name of Dr Sampson Parker; this can be verified”.

He acknowledged that Parker has right to belong to any political party of his choice without lying to the public.

“But for a man of his (Parker’s) status to associate himself with an open lie, knowing it to be so, in order to score cheap political points in the eyes of Gov. Wike beats our imagination. We wish to state categorically that since Dr Parker chose to go his own way in the years preceding 2015, he has never enjoyed any close political tie with Mr Chibuike Amaechi”.

Mr Tamunokuro Olarere, immediate past Chairman of APC Ward 5 in Okrika Local Government Area (LGA) of Rivers, said Parker never registered as a member of the party and that he was surprised to hear that the former health commissioner had moved from APC to PDP.

“Dr Sampson Parker’s name is not in our party record, and there has been no time that he came to register as a member of the party in Unit 006 (Okochiri) of ward 5. I am of the same political ward with Dr Sampson Parker, and I am the immediate past Ward Chairman of APC. Take it from me that he was never a member of APC”.

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