As the race for 2027 elections begins to shape up, strong rumours of defection are swirling around no fewer than five first term opposition governors, LEADERSHIP checks have revealed.
Investigations by LEADERSHIP showed that governors of Abia (Alex Otti) Enugu (Peter Mbah), Delta (Sheriff Oborevwori), Rivers (Siminalayi Fubara) and Akwa Ibom (Umoh Eno) have had to address concerns surrounding talks about their plans to dump their parties for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
While Mbah, Fubara, Eno, Oborevwori belong to the major opposition PDP, Otti belongs to the Labour Party. Interestingly, both parties have been locked in post-2023 election crises which seems to have defied interventions so far.
While some sources confided in LEADERSHIP that some of the governors are being subtly pressured to join the ruling APC, others noted that others, mindful of the instability in their party, are open to joining a platform that would enhance their chances of securing a second term.
Since the return of democracy in Nigeria in 1999, over 20 sitting governors have dumped their political parties for another. The top states with the highest number of sitting governors jumping ship are Sokoto, Imo, Abia and Adamawa.
In Sokoto, three governors have dumped their parties for another, while two sitting governors in Imo, Abia, Zamfara and Adamawa have done the same.
While some first term governors were able to win a second term, others were not so lucky.
In Abia State, concerns about Governor Otti’s loyalty to his party arose when he resorted to the Zenith Labour Party as a special purpose vehicle for the local government election in the state last year.
However, talks about dumping his party heightened when after the groundbreaking ceremony for the Abia airport, the minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, declared that the Abia governor would return to the APC.
Also, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, had mounted pressure on Otti to join the APC.
LEADERSHIP Friday reports that no fewer than five Labour Party House of Representatives members have joined APC so far.
In Rivers State, Governor Fubara’s use of APP for the local government election, following his inability to wrest the PDP structure from the minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike, has sustained talks that he may dump the PDP ahead of the 2027 election.
The closeness of the Akwa Ibom State governor, Eno, to Senate President Godswill Akpabio, one of the national leaders of APC, has sustained suspicions that he might join the party at the centre.
In Enugu, there are insinuations that the disruptive politics within the PDP at the national level might make the governor, who isn’t disposed to be distracted by party intrigues, seek another platform.
PDP leaders in Delta, under the aegis of Concerned Leaders of PDP, blew the whistle about Oborevwori’s romance with APC leaders. The party leaders, namely Mr Theophilus Ekiyor; Mr. Ochuko Oghenekome, and Mr. Ezekiel Chukwudi, in an open letter accused the governor of secretly romancing President Bola Tinubu’s chief of staff, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila and the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in order to secure a second term as Delta governor.
Recall that Hon. Erhiatake Ibori-Suenu, a federal lawmaker and daughter of former Delta State governor, James Ibori, had dumped PDP for APC last year. Ibori is a Tinubu contemporary as governor in 1999 and a close ally.
But the governors have pushed back on the rumours, declaring, albeit through their aides, that they will not dump their parties for the ruling APC.
Also their parties have declared such claims as the handiwork of the ruling party, seeking to sow confusion within their parties and suspicion against the governors.
Mbah has no plan of leaving us – PDP
The spokesman of Enugu State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Uchenna Obute Udi has described as falsehood allegations that many members of the party are planning to defect to APC.
He dismissed the allegations in an exclusive interview with LEADERSHIP Friday in Enugu.
He described Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, as the leader of the PDP in Enugu State and the Southeast and wondered why such allegations would be made against the PDP members including the governor.
The PDP spokesman stated that in less than two years in office, the governor has transformed the state through massive infrastructural development.
He noted that the governor has endeared himself to the people of the state irrespective of their party affiliations through his numerous projects.
On the recent visit of President Almed Bola Tinubu to the state, Udi stated that he came to Enugu State as president of the country and not for party politics.
He noted that the president knew Mbah before the latter became governor, and that the governor was a key actor in the private sector.
Udi added that the speech of the President during his visit clearly showed that he came to see what the governor had been doing irrespective of his party affiliation.
Otti not under pressure to dump LP
As at press time, efforts to get clarification on the report from either his adviser on Media and Publicity, Ferdinand Ekeoma, or the chief press secretary, Ukoha Njoku on their mobile phones failed.
However, a top member of the administration, who pleaded anonymity said he was not aware of such pressure even as he argued that by his performance in office, Otti had become a brand.
“Like a beautiful bride, it is possible that some opposition parties might be wooing him to join them. Such moves are not out of place in our clime,” he asserted.
But the story is different in the Labour Party where most of the members feel the governor sidelined them “in all ramifications after climbing on our back to victory”.
According to a reliable source in the party, securing the party’s ticket for 2027 might be an uphill task for Otti “so, the earlier he starts looking elsewhere perhaps the better for him.”
“I’m not aware whether he has indicated interest to participate in the ongoing membership revalidation in the party,” the source added.
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Oborevwori’s defection rumours sponsored by opposition
The chief press secretary to the Delta Governor, Sir Festus Ahon, said there is no iota of truth in the claim by PDP leaders in the state that Oborevwori’s plans to defect to the ruling APC.
“It’s a lie being pushed by opposition elements” he told LEADERSHIP Friday.
Similarly the PDP in the state has dismissed rumours as mischievous and unfounded.
In a statement issued by the party’s chairman in the state, Chief Solomon Arenyenka, the PDP described the reports as the work of unemployed political hirelings and their unscrupulous sponsors, who are failed agents of destabilisation and betrayal.
The statement read in part: “We assert unequivocally that the faceless group of individuals spreading these rumours and presenting themselves as concerned leaders of the PDP are impostors and not members of our esteemed party.
“We strongly condemn, in the strongest terms, the vile and malicious propaganda of these depraved perpetrators, particularly the key peddler—a notorious serial blackmailer and dishonest individual who will be remembered infamously for concocting lies as a means of survival.”
Why Gov Eno Won’t Defect To APC – PDP
PDP in Akwa Ibom has also dismissed the claim about Eno’s surreptitious moves to join APC, calling it a ruse.
The party hierarchy in the state led by Elder Aniekan Akpan had at various fora dismissed such report as mere speculations within the imaginations of the purveyors.”
Akpan, noted that “PDP is like a religion in Akwa Ibom,” stressing that, “PDP is Akwa Ibom and Akwa Ibom is PDP.”
In the vein, the PDP publicity secretary, Mr. Edwin Ebiese, urged the people of the state not to believe in rumour as propagated by some opposition forces in the media,
However, a PDP leader in the state, who pleaded anonymity, admitted that the rumour shouldn’t be dismissed wholly.
He said, “Tinubu is not like Buhari, who appeared apolitical throughout his presidential stint.
“Tinubu is an ardent, suave and alluring politician with massive Machevellian attributes of the end justifying the means. So he will not spare anything to capture Akwa Ibom.
“Surviving to emerge the winner of the 2023 presidential election against all odds, the President would want to dismantle all perceived obstacles by wooing some of the remaining opposition states, especially Akwa Ibom, that they had over the years longed for, into the APC.
“They had done it in Edo and Ondo states, so the complimentary dispositions by Governor Umo Eno, and the Senate President could be a pointer to the likely defection of the governor to crumble and further weaken the opposition structure in Nigeria ahead of the 2027 general elections”, the PDP stalwart in Uyo told LEADERSHIP Friday.
Fubara Has No Plan To Leave
PDP – Rivers Information Commissioner
The Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Warisenibo Joe Johnson, has said Governor Siminalayi Fubara has no plans to dump the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for any other political party.
Speaking with LEADERSHIP Friday in Port Harcourt, Johnson said: “Rumour is rumour and will remain in the realms of rumour. I am not aware of such a move.”