Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State has lastly defected from the Peoples Democratic Social gathering (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Mr Mbah introduced his defection in a broadcast from the Authorities Home in Enugu on Tuesday after weeks of hypothesis.
The governor defected to the APC together with all of the commissioners and elected chairpersons of the state’s 17 native authorities areas.
He added that he additionally defected to the APC alongside all elected councillors and at the very least 80 per cent of the PDP executives within the state.
“Immediately, after an extended reflection, we now have made the choice to depart the Peoples Democratic Social gathering and be a part of the All Progressives Congress,” he stated amid cheers from supporters.
“That is no whimsical choice. It’s a collective transfer by the political household in Enugu State, comprising members of the Nationwide Meeting, members of the State Home of Meeting, the State Government Council, all of the Native Authorities Chairmen and Councillors, all political appointees, and over 80 p.c of (PDP) occasion executives.”
The state’s speedy previous governor, Ifeanyi Ugwanyi, was current through the declaration.
However it’s unclear if he was additionally defecting from the PDP to the APC.
‘Connecting Enugu to the centre’
Mr Mbah thanked the PDP for giving him the platform to contest and win the governorship election within the state in 2023.
The governor defined that his defection to the APC was to attach Enugu State to the central authorities.
“This transfer is greater than politics – it’s about alignment at scale. It’s about connecting Enugu’s future with the central hub of broader reforms shaping our nation,” he stated.
He lauded President Bola Tinubu, emphasising that the defection to the APC was to enter right into a “visionary partnership” with Mr Tinubu’s presidency.
Mr Mbah stated his administration shares Mr Tinubu’s presidency’s conviction that South-east improvement should be “daring and disruptive.”
“The president has proven not solely curiosity, however a deep and vested dedication to Enugu, one which recognises our area as a pillar of nationwide progress.
“We each share a perception that renewal doesn’t cease on the grand highways or the stability sheets. It should attain the ward, the village, our grassroots. It’s within the every day lifetime of the farmer, the dealer, the younger entrepreneur that reforms come alive,” he stated.
With the most recent improvement, Enugu, which had been below the management of the PDP since 1999, has develop into an APC-controlled state.
It was the one remaining PDP state within the South-east. The APC controls Imo and Ebonyi within the area.
The 2 remaining states—Anambra and Abia—are managed by the All Progressives Grand Alliance and the Labour Social gathering, respectively.
Background
Mr Mbah was elected governor of Enugu State in 2023 below the PDP platform. However months later, the South-east Zonal management of the PDP started a face-off with the nationwide management of the occasion over a contest for its nationwide secretary place.
Samuel Anyanwu, the substantive occupant of the place, had stepped apart to contest within the 11 November 2023 Imo State governorship election on the PDP platform however misplaced to the incumbent governor, Hope Uzodimma of the APC.
Mr Anyanwu tried to take over the place after failing to win the Imo governorship ballot, however was resisted by the South-east management of the occasion, who had nominated a former Nationwide Youth Chief of the occasion, Sunday Udeh-Okoye, to exchange Mr Anyanwu. The face-off resulted in extended authorized battles.
In December, the Court docket of Enchantment, Enugu Division, upheld a judgement of the Enugu State Excessive Court docket which recognised Mr Ude-Okoye because the nationwide secretary of the PDP towards Mr Anyanwu.
Nonetheless, on 21 March 2025, the Supreme Court docket nullified the judgements of the decrease courts that had sacked Mr Anyanwu because the PDP nationwide secretary.
Whereas Mr Anyanwu celebrated the courtroom’s overturning of his sack, the PDP management within the South-east expressed happiness that the courtroom held that each courts had no jurisdiction to listen to the case within the first occasion.
The South-east PDP management celebrated the ruling of the courtroom that issues regarding the management or membership of a political occasion fall strictly inside the occasion’s inner affairs and shouldn’t be the enterprise of any courtroom.
On 14 Might, they re-nominated Mr Udeh-Okoye because the occasion’s nationwide secretary earlier than presenting the re-nomination to the occasion’s Nationwide Working Committee (NWC) days later.
By June, the PDP leaders within the zone additionally threatened to dump the occasion if its NWC refused to ratify Mr Udeh-Okoye because the nationwide secretary.
A bloc of leaders from the occasion loyal to the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, went forward to reaffirm Mr Anyanwu because the duly elected and substantive nationwide secretary of the occasion.
ALSO READ: ANALYSIS: How Peter Mbah fared in Enugu after one yr as governor
The then-acting Nationwide Chairperson of the PDP, Umar Damagun, affirmed the declaration by Mr Wike’s loyalists when he introduced in June that Mr Anyanwu had been restored to his place because the occasion’s nationwide secretary, which was later opposed by a faction of the occasion’s NWC.
In late September, PREMIUM TIMES completely reported that Mr Mbah had perfected plans to defect from the PDP to the APC.
In the meantime, Mr Mbah’s defection to the APC occurred 24 hours after Mr Udeh-Okoye introduced his resignation from the PDP in what many imagine was to pave the way in which to hitch the governor in shifting to the ruling occasion.
