Defection: Eno tells unwilling officials to resign, vows not to relinquish Akwa Ibom PDP structure

Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State has finally confirmed he is leaving the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), ending months of speculations on his political future.

Mr Eno told his cabinet members at an event at Government House in Uyo on Thursday to prepare their resignation letters if they are unwilling to defect with him to the ruling APC.

“We want our commissioners and members of Exco, appointees, and those of you who are saying that you would not come, you are free absolutely not to join me, but you won’t be in my State Executive Council.

“Prepare to resign the day I announced that I am moving because you cannot; you are an appointee, and your loyalty is fully to me. You can’t be in my cabinet and play anti-party. It is what it is.

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“I am even begging you to come, you normally don’t expect it. You have the right not to support me again, but the right you don’t have is to remain in my cabinet after I leave. I am making it clear,” Mr Eno said in a video posted on YouTube by Channels Television.

Reason for defection

Mr Eno will be the first serving governor of Akwa Ibom State to defect from the PDP to the APC since the return of democracy in 1999.

With his defection confirmed, the South-south region, which had its six states governed by the PDP before now, has lost four to the APC.

Mr Eno is the second South-south PDP governor to dump the party for APC within a month, after Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta state.

The Akwa Ibom governor said the PDP leadership crisis, particularly the office of the party’s national secretary, which is plagued by protracted litigation, was responsible for his imminent defection.

“It is no more news that I am leaving the party. If you don’t know this by now, I don’t know what else you know. As a PDP person, I love PDP. I want to stay in PDP, but clearly, I don’t have the roadmap to guarantee that I will be able to have a smooth sail in the elections.

“Not because we won’t win an election. In this state today, with the work that all of us have done, even if we contest on a zero party, we would still win this election, no doubt about it.

“I know that at the national level, our party is not coming together. Every day, we have either a secretary or this and that, and so you take your form and then they send it to INEC. Then you run the elections and perhaps win the election, and just on technical grounds, because the wrong person signed your form, you lose everything.

“I am not going to be stupid doing that. I love my party. And in any case, we are running like there’s no party,” the governor said.

Eno vows not to relinquish PDP structure

The PDP has been the governing party in Akwa Ibom for over 26 years, since democracy was restored in Nigeria in 1999. The party has maintained a grassroots dominance in the state, producing over 90 per cent of chairpersons and councillors in all the 31 local government areas of the state.

The PDP has also maintained a formidable structure at all levels in the state. Securing the PDP nomination in Akwa Ibom is likened to winning the general election, prompting its members to dub the party a “religion” in the state.

Addressing cabinet members on his defection to the APC, Mr Eno vowed never to relinquish the PDP structure in the state, a move that may pitch him against his predecessor, Udom Emmanuel, whom, PREMIUM TIMES gathered, has refused to move with him to the APC.

“Contrary to insinuations that I want to run both parties, far from it. And what is wrong with being interested? We would not leave the PDP for thieves to come and hijack it and use it to fight against us.

“We will lead the structure of the party so that they can work together and stay so that people don’t come from outside and think Umo Eno has moved, let me come and hijack the party. No, let the structure of the party remain. They’ve done their congresses, let them run and let it be that they are there,” Mr Eno said.

Background

Mr Eno was elected the governor of Akwa Ibom under the PDP platform in 2023. He previously served as commissioner in Mr Emmanuel’s cabinet before the latter unveiled him as his preferred successor. Mr Emmanuel worked against all the odds to ensure Mr Eno’s victory at the polls.

Speaking recently at a Thanksgiving Service in Lagos, Mr Eno appreciated his predecessor’s support during the election but said God used Mr Emmanuel to fulfil a prophecy made in 1980 at the Apostolic Church, Maboju Assembly, that he would return to his homeland and become a governor.

Mr Eno has previously endorsed President Bola Tinubu and Senate President Godswill Akpabio for reelection in 2027, a move that is considered anti-party.

READ ALSO: Eno threatens to sack commissioners

On Thursday, the governor said he does not want to violate the PDP constitution by supporting Mr Tinubu.

“Again, I support this president. I know well that this president did not create the situation (the economic crisis) we are in. I don’t know how to mince words. I cannot be in PDP today and support a president of another party.

“It will be clearly in violation of party guidelines. I don’t know how to flip-flop. So, if I am supporting the president, let me go to where I can say so and state what he has done. I don’t want to practice anti-party. I don’t have the kind of strength that Mr Wike has. I am a very simple man by nature,” Mr Eno said.