ABUJA: In what may alter the political map of the Southeast ahead of the 2027 general elections, Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State is set to dump the Peoples Democratic Party PDP for the All Progressives Congress APC, dragging with him the entire political structure of the state.
Caretaker Chairman of the APC in Enugu, Dr. Ben Nwoye, dropped the bombshell during the inauguration of the new caretaker committee on Thursday in Abuja, declaring that the defection will not just be symbolic, but total.
According to Nwoye, Governor Mbah will officially declare for the ruling party on October 14, 2024, and will be joined by all 260 ward councillors, 24 members of the Enugu State House of Assembly, members of the National Assembly from the state, as well as the entire PDP state executive committee.
“Our evangelism has started. We took it to the governor and he has promised and agreed to be part of us, to move this party and ensure that the Renewed Hope Agenda of Bola Tinubu comes to Enugu State. The governor is not coming alone,” Nwoye said.
The announcement was greeted with thunderous applause, as party leaders described the impending defection as the most consequential political realignment in the Southeast since 1999.
APC National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, charged the caretaker committee to leverage the defection to strengthen the party’s grassroots structures, warning that APC must expand membership without neglecting old loyalists.
“We must maintain our members who have laboured and suffered to build this party. At the same time, APC is a home for all. The person that came yesterday, today or tomorrow has equal rights under our Constitution,” Yilwatda said.
He noted the achievements of President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, pointing to massive improvements in revenue allocation, healthcare, and primary education, stressing that APC must “sell its successes” in Enugu and the wider Southeast.
Deputy National Chairman (South), Emma Eneukwu, hailed the development as a turning point for the Southeast in national politics, saying the region will no longer play “second fiddle” in the political protocol of Nigeria.
Political observers say Mbah’s planned defection, if consummated with his entire structure, will mark the death knell of the PDP in Enugu — a state it has held unbroken since 1999 — and could trigger similar shifts in neighbouring Anambra and Abia.
Nwoye captured the mood bluntly: “Where Enugu goes, the Southeast goes. Never again will the opposition dominate our region. With Governor Mbah and APC, the Southeast will return to the mainstream of Nigerian politics.”
The move, APC strategists insist, will not only weaken the PDP but also reshape the power balance ahead of 2027, with Enugu positioned as the launchpad for the ruling party’s conquest of the Southeast.
