Indications have emerged why the Enugu State governor, Peter Mbah, decided to dump the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Mbah is set to formally join the ruling APC next Tuesday.
A source, authorised to speak for the governor, told LEADERSHIP Sunday that the crisis over the national secretary position, and the fear that PDP might not be able to field candidates in the 2027 election influenced the governor’s decision to sever ties with the party.
The source recalled the failure of the PDP to ratify Hon. Sunday Udeh-Okoye as South East’s choice to complete the remaining tenure of Senator Samuel Anyanwu, who had won the party’s ticket and flew the party’s flag in the November 2023 Imo governorship election, had pitted the party and its South East causes.
He further added that the South East PDP, in their communique after a Zonal Executive Committee (ZEC) meeting at Government House, Enugu, on May 14, warned that it was fed up and might leave the party if it failed to ratify Udeh-Okoye as the national secretary for the umpteenth time.
Quoting a part of the communique as read by the South East Zonal Chairman of the party, Chief Ali Odefa, the source recounted, “If our position is not promptly implemented by the party, the South East PDP, as a family, will be compelled to reconsider our relationship with the PDP going forward.”
He further recalled that on that occasion, former Senate President and Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, Senator Adolphus Wabara, decried the trampling of South East PDP despite the region’s loyalty to the party since its formation in 1998.
“We have been trampled upon, not taken seriously. If such a position were vacant in the South-south, it would not be like this. And now, it came to us and the usual thing is to play politics with the Igbo man. Yes, we may have to reconsider our stand as far as the party is concerned. But I trust the NWC,” he quoted Wabara as saying.
The source also said the endless crisis in the PDP is also a major factor fueling defections from the party, including Mbah’s defection.
The source said recalled that Mbah, had reiterated the possibility of South East and himself dumping the party during Governor Seyi Makinde’s intervention visit to Enugu on June 30 this year.
He quoted Mbah as saying “We reserve the right to review our continued membership of the party if the party is unwilling to put its house in order.”
The source added that with the retention of Anyanwu, an ally of the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, as national secretary, “the PDP has continued to writhe in pains of crisis, with many party faithful now afraid that the PDP might not be able to field candidates in the 2027 election.”
He added that with Anyanwu’s reinstatement, a civil society organisation, National Alliance for Democratic Governance (NADG), predicted that Ambassador Umar Damagun would be the last chairman of the party.
“The pages of history will remember the Acting National Chairman, Ambassador Umar Damagun, as the man who presided over PDP’s final funeral,” the CSO said on July 3.
The source added that the crisis has also continued as both Anyanwu and Damagun have been writing counter letters to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
