Okon, who said this in Calabar, noted that Ndoma-Egba’s exit from the PDP was painful considering his status in the country and his contributions to the last Senate.
The PDP chairman, however, said there was nothing the party could do when the former Senate Leader lost in the November primary for the Cross River-Central senatorial district.
He said, “Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba’s exit from the party is painful because we did not believe that he would leave. But I must say that since he lost the November primary last year, his spirit was out of the party.
“The former Senate Leader is my personal friend. I have nothing against him and he lost to a formidable contender who is a grass-root person. Remember that the election was decided by the people of the central senatorial district which was out of the purview of the state executive.”
The PDP chairman said that after the election, several efforts were made to reconcile Ndoma-Egba with the party, but regret that such efforts did not yield positive response as, according to him, “Ndoma-Egba’s spirit was out of the party.”
Okon insisted that the party did not offend the former Senate Leader in any way, adding that what might have eventually led to his exit was the failure of the party to win at the national level.
“He has only decided to leave because our party failed the election at the national level. If the PDP had remained in power, he probably would have been given an ambassadorial position,” he noted.
Okon appealed to the former Senate Leader to forget the past and return to the party as there was a mechanism in place to accommodate all aggrieved party members.
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