The chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto, has said that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is ready to take over the federal government in 2023.

He said this on Monday when the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party received some former appointees of Governor Ben Ayade who refused to decamp to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“When we take over the government in 2023, we will start the restructuring of the country,” he said.

The Cross River governor had, on May 20, decamped to the APC alongside some of his aides.

Speaking at the occasion, the national chairman of PDP, Uche Secondus, described the PDP as the party to take Nigeria to greater heights.

He assured party members of a level playing ground for all.

A former Commissioner for Water Resources, Godwin Etta, said he could not follow Mr Ayade to the APC because “there was no reason for that.”

Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra described Cross River as a “100 per cent PDP state.”

Mr Obi, who was the vice-presidential candidate of PDP in the 2019 general elections, said Cross River was Nigeria’s destination under Governors Donald Duke and Liyel Imoke.

“But today, all Cross River stood for have gone. Before you could sleep with your eyes closed but today you can no longer sleep with your eyes closed,” he said.

The former governor, Donald Duke, used the opportunity to officially announce his formal return to the PDP.

“I am back, ” he said.