Former Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, has said it is misleading to suggest that he and others are defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), arguing instead that the party has drifted away from them.

Speaking on Politics Today, a programme on Channels Television, Dickson expressed strong dissatisfaction with what he described as the collapse of the PDP’s original structure and values. According to him, the party Nigerians once trusted with leadership has effectively ceased to exist.

“At this point, it is not accurate to say that we have left the PDP. It is more appropriate to say that the PDP left us,” he stated.

Dickson lamented that the party he joined in the early 2000s has gradually lost its identity and foundational principles.

“It is painful to witness the steady disappearance of a platform we believed in and relied upon. That is not the same as abandoning it,” he said.

Reflecting on his political journey, Dickson recalled joining the PDP after leaving the Alliance for Democracy, eventually rising to become one of its prominent figures.

“The PDP I knew — the one Nigerians embraced since its formation — has been completely dismantled. That version of the party is gone,” he added.

He further argued that the current state of the party bears little resemblance to its former self, noting that it no longer reflects the organization that once commanded widespread national support.

Dickson also pointed to the party’s history of electoral success, highlighting its role in producing three consecutive presidents: Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, and Goodluck Jonathan.

He described that era as a time when the PDP was widely appealing and influential across the country.

“That was the PDP people were proud to be associated with,” he concluded.