Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State has explained that he and other members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) because of the alleged PDP’s ill-treatment of the South-east in the party.
Mr Mbah disclosed this on Tuesday while announcing his defection in a state-wide broadcast from the Government House in Enugu State.
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The governor defected to the APC alongside other members of the PDP in the South-eastern state, including all political appointees, elected chairpersons of all 17 local government areas in the state, councilors, members of the state assembly and at least 80 percent of the PDP executives in the state.
“For decades, the South-east – especially Enugu – has stood firmly behind the PDP, showing loyalty that shaped the party’s success.
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“Yet despite this history, our voices were too often disregarded when it mattered most. It has therefore become necessary to seek affiliation where our interests as a region are represented in the form of fair partnership,” he said during the state-wide broadcast.
Mr Mbah suggested that, with the defection into the APC, the “voices” of Enugu and South-east would now be heard in Abuja.
“Let me be clear, I will represent our state and our region (South-east) with the same strength of purpose as I have always done.
“Our Igbo DNA does not change; our destiny does not change. What changes is that our vision now finds stronger reinforcement at the federal level,” he stated.
The governor was apparently referring to the rift between the South-east PDP and the party’s national leadership which was triggered by the insistence of the National Working Committee of the PDP to retain Samuel Anyanwu as the party’s national secretary against the choice of Sunday Udeh-Okoye who was nominated by the zone.
Mr Mbah’s defection has consequently shrunk the PDP’s control to just nine states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Taraba, and Zamfara. It has also taken the number of states controlled by the APC to 24.
Historically, the defection ended PDP’s presence in the South-east which had long supported the party since 1999 with Enugu joining Ebonyi and Imo in the list of states controlled by the APC in the region.
The two remaining states in the South-east – Anambra and Abia- are controlled by the All Progressives Grand Alliance and the Labour Party, respectively.
‘Difficult, painful decision’
Speaking during the state-wide broadcast, Mr Mbah said although the people of Enugu State had walked side by side for three decades during which they “built relationships” that would always matter, the decision to part ways with the party was imperative.
“Leadership sometimes demands difficult – even painful – decisions in the service of higher principles and goals. And there always comes a time when everyone must make a bold choice to determine their destiny.
“Over the past months, I have thought carefully about the path forward. In the end, after much soul searching and discussion, I have concluded that we must stand for the principles and institutions that honour transparency, trust, and above all – the people we serve,” he said.
“We are not moving from a place of resentment or fear. We are confident of our future. We have no axe to grind, no personal point to make. But fairness, respect and integrity must guide our choices for that future to be ours.”
Background
Mr Mbah was elected governor of Enugu State in 2023 under the PDP platform. But months later, the South-east Zonal leadership of the PDP began a face-off with the national leadership of the party over a contest for its national secretary position.
Mr Anyanwu, , the substantive occupant of the position, had stepped aside to contest in the 11 November 2023 Imo State governorship election on the PDP platform but lost to the incumbent governor, Hope Uzodimma of the APC.
Mr Anyanwu attempted to take over the position after failing to win the Imo governorship poll, but was resisted by the South-east leadership of the party who had nominated a former National Youth Leader of the party, Mr Udeh-Okoye, to replace Mr Anyanwu. The face-off resulted in prolonged legal battles.
In December, the Court of Appeal, Enugu Division, upheld a judgment of the Enugu State High Court which recognised Mr Ude-Okoye as the national secretary of the PDP against Mr Anyanwu.
However, the Supreme Court, on 21 March 2025, nullified the judgments of the lower courts which sacked Mr Anyanwu as the PDP national secretary.
While Mr Anyanwu celebrated the court overturning of his sack, the PDP leadership in the South-east expressed happiness that the court held that both courts had no jurisdiction to hear the case in the first instance.
The South-east PDP leadership celebrated the ruling of the court that matters relating to the leadership or membership of a political party fall strictly within the party’s internal affairs and should not be the business of any court.
On 14 May, they renominated Mr Udeh-Okoye as the party’s national secretary before presenting the re-nomination to the party’s NWC days later.
By June, the PDP leaders in the zone also threatened to dump the party if its NWC refused to ratify Mr Udeh-Okoye as the national secretary.
A bloc of leaders from the party loyal to the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, went ahead to reaffirm Mr Anyawu as the duly elected and substantive national secretary of the party.
The then-acting National Chairperson of the PDP, Umar Damagun, affirmed the declaration by Mr Wike’s loyalists when he announced in June that Mr Anyanwu had been restored to his position as the party’s national secretary which was later opposed by a faction of the party’s NWC.
READ ALSO: APC dissolves Enugu party leadership, appoints caretaker committee
In late September, PREMIUM TIMES exclusively reported that Mr Mbah had perfected plans to defect from the PDP to the APC first because of the unending strife within the PDP at the national level and secondly the insistence of the PDP’s NWC to retain Mr Anyanwu as national secretary instead of Mr Udeh-Okoye, the candidate nominated by the zone.
Meanwhile, Mr Mbah’s defection to the APC occurred 24 hours after Mr Udeh-Okoye announced his resignation from the PDP in what many believe was to pave the way to join the governor in moving to the ruling party.
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