APC not pressuring govs to defect – Morka

The National Publicity Secretary of All Progressives Congress, Felix Morka, has said that the party is not pressuring governors to join it.

This was as he played down concerns that the influx of defectors into the ruling party could endanger the democratic landscape.

Morka stated this in an interview on Arise News on Saturday night, saying that the defections of politicians from opposition parties into the APC are a legitimate exercise of constitutional rights, not a signal of democratic decline.

According to him, the decisions of members of the Peoples Democratic Party, Labour Party and African Democratic Congress to join the APC are in line with democratic principles.

“I have no concern whatsoever about that because nothing that has happened in our country — with people leaving their parties to join the APC — suggests that our country is sliding into a one-party system.

“People are simply exercising their democratic freedom to choose among competing party alternatives, and they are choosing our party. We are not pressuring governors to join us,” he said.

He also challenges the notion that the defections pose a threat to democracy, describing such arguments as misleading and unfair.

“It would be disingenuous to describe the development as a threat to democracy.

“Would you have the APC become a gatekeeper and decide who can or cannot come in? Democracy is a system of freedoms, and it is not fair or permissible for anyone to limit the right of people to choose for themselves. The fact that people join the APC does not mean we have a one-party system,” he added.