Vice President Kashim Shettima Monday said Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State, former Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, and their supporters are co-owners and not guests of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Shettima who represented President Bola Tinubu at the event held in Asaba disclosed where he formally received the decampees.
He stressed the need for unity and collaboration, emphasising that the new members were joining as equals in the ruling party.
Shettima noted: “You are not guests in this house; you are now co-owners. This is now as much your party as it is ours.”
Shettima, who described the new APC entrants as giants in Nigerian politics, highlighted the significance of their decision to join the APC.
He added: “The true measure of a political party lies not merely in the enthusiasm of its members, but in the conviction it inspires among those who once stood across from them.”
“They were joining the party not as defectors but as brothers and sisters who have found their rightful place among the APC faithful, even as he maintained that they were joining the governing party not as guests but as family and “as fellow architects of a better Nigeria.”
“What sets the APC apart is not an illusion of uniformity; it is our acceptance that differences are inevitable and that greatness lies in managing them.
“Our tables have always been tables of dialogue, places where every member, no matter how great or small, is welcomed to air their grievances, challenge our direction, and shape our future.
“Since its formation in 2013, the APC has been both the dream and the drama of Nigerian democracy. So many predictions have been written about us as though we were an experiment doomed to fail,” he said.
“Today is not merely a day of receiving new members. This is a declaration that the spirit of our great nation is alive — a spirit that dreams beyond personal ambition, beyond party lines, and sees the larger arc of history. Nigeria is greater than all of us, and what we do here today is a step towards strengthening her promise.”
Earlier, National Chairman of the APC, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, said it was a historic day, even as he described the defection of the Delta State Governor as a political legacy.
“The National Working Committee of our party is happy with this decision of the Governor, and we are impressed with the cordial relationship existing between the Governor and his predecessor, Dr Okowa,” he said.
Formally accepting the Delta State Governor into the APC, Ganduje handed over the flag of the party and a broom, the main symbol of the APC, to Oborevwori.