The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) insisted yesterday its elected local government councillors in Edo State had not defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The councillors stormed the opposition party’s Benin secretariat to restate their commitment to the party. They describing their defection claims as a ploy by Governor Monday Okpebholo to deceive the public, the President, and the APC leadership.

They were received at the party secretariat by the Edo PDP Caretaker Committee Chairman Anthony Aziegbemi and other party leaders. Others present at the event were the 18 suspended chairmen and their deputies.

They also debunked the news of their defection to the APC. Aziegbemi said: “We want to unequivocally state that all councillors elected on the platform of the PDP are fully with us and their conscience can’t be bought with money.

That is why they are here today. “So, we are asking that who were those being paraded yesterday by Okpebholo as the acting chairmen who have joined their party if not the impostors he hired to deceive the President and the leadership of his party.