Why Mbah may defect from PDP

The Sun

The failure of the PDP to ratify Hon. Sunday Udeh-Okoye as South East’s choice to complete the remaining tenure 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.

In their communique after the South East Zonal Executive Committee (ZEC) meeting at Government House, Enugu, on May 14, the South East PDP 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.

“In the event that 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,” the communique read by the South East Zonal Chairman of the party, Chief Ali Odefa stated.

On the occasion, former Senate President and Chairman of 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.”

The endless crisis in the PDP is also a major factor fueling defections from the party, including the rumoured possible defection of Dr. Mbah.

While reiterating the possibility of South East and himself dumping the party during Governor Seyi Makinde’s intervention visit to Enugu on June 30 Mbah maintained that “we reserve the right to review our continued membership of the party if the party is unwilling to put its house in order.”

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 PDP might not be able to field candidates in the 2027 election.

Within Anyanwu’s reinstatement, National Alliance for Democratic Governance (NADG), a civil society organisation, predicted that Ambassador Umar Damagun would be the last Chairman of the troubled 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 crisis has also continued as both Anyanwu and Damagun have been been at loggerheads over, writing counter letters to INEC.