A former Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Ibim Semenitari, has defected to the Peoples Democratic Party.
Semenitari, an ally to the former Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, had resigned from the All Progressives Congress in July this year, but was hitherto quiet about her next political destination.
Semenitari was received back to the ruling party in the Okrika Local Government Area of the state by the executive chairman of the council, Akuro Tobin, a former Rivers State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Sampson Parker, and other chieftains of the party on Saturday.
The former NDDC boss had on July 10, 2022, dumped the APC after transmitting a formal letter to the APC Chairman in Ward 5, Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Although she did not state her reason for leaving the party, many believed that it was connected to the leadership crisis rocking the party, culminating in a gale of resignations and defections from the APC in the state led by Amaechi.
Semenitari, an ace journalist and CNN award winner, was in the kitchen cabinet in the administration of Amaechi as Governor of the crude oil and gas-rich state.
On her defection to the PDP, Semenitari told newsmen that the ruling party in the state was her first home.
“My first political home was the PDP. I moved with my former boss (Rotimi Amaechi) who was the leader of the PDP in Rivers State until when the party structure was taken away from him.
“Every politics must benefit the people. I left the APC for personal reason. I could not provide for my teeming supporters and those who saw reason to belong to the APC because of me.”
She further said her father (Dr. Gabriel Tobby) was Deputy Governor of the State to ex-Governor Peter Odili on the platform of the PDP, saying it was natural that she returned to her former “political home.”
Semenitari added, “Now that an Opobo son (Sim Fubara) is contesting for the Governor of Rivers State on the platform of the PDP, we all must support him to win the election in 2023.
“We all must place ourselves in a position to speak for our people. I need to find a position to speak for my teeming supporters and the good people of Opobo Kingdom.
“That is my only attraction to the PDP and nothing more. Yes, I joined the PDP today (Saturday).
