Actress turned politician Tonto Dikeh has dumped the African Democratic Congress (ADC) to join the All Progressives Congress (APC).
According to The Nation, Tonto will be officially unveiled by the APC national women leader, Dr Mary Alile, later today at the national secretariat in Abuja.
The actress was the deputy governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Rivers State for the 2023 election.
She, however, stepped down from the race 48 hours before the election and declared her support for the APC governorship candidate Tonye Cole who lost to Siminialayi Fubara of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
In August 2022, the movie star revealed that she would not be returning to Nollywood after the governorship election in Rivers State.
“I no really dey film like that again, you know e don tey I don dey screen. No be say I don do like two films in 10 years you no go tell me say I dey industry anymore. always appreciate that it was the industry that my path started from, that my shine started from, it is something that I respect, but it’s not something that has been in my life. So even after the election no be something I go still go back to,” she told BBC Pidgin.
In an interview with journalists in Abuja during the GOTNI national leadership conference last year, Tonto said she would not stop contesting until she fulfils her ambition.
Tonto said her chances of governing the oil-rich state in the future were both high and slim because politics is dirty.
Tonto Dikeh reacts to criticism over emergence as ADC Rivers deputy governorship candidate
“One of the things I learnt is resilience and never giving up. I know after four years, they will forget about me and that, ‘she is not going to come back.’ But I am going to come back. Every four years, I am going to come back. I will come back and I will be in their faces. I will be coming back to the contest.
“My chances are high and slim because politics is dirty. It’s not going to be free and fair. (Nyesom) Wike’s candidate didn’t win free and fair. So I don’t expect politics to be free and fair, but I expect that, as someone said, having a lion’s heart requires taking the lion’s share.
“I won’t care what they think about my position, I will keep having the lion’s share, whether it is my personal life or politics, I am here to stay and they have no choice but to accept it,” the actress said.
Born into a family of seven from Obio-Akpor in Rivers State, the 37-year-old lost her mother when she was three years old. She was raised by her stepmother, who has two children.
Tonto has been featured in Nollywood movies like Celebrity Marriage, BlackBerry Babes, Dirty Secret, Men in Love, Missing Crib, Native Son and Crisis in Paradise.
