Mbah’s Exit Will Mark End Of South-East PDP, Says Okechukwu

A former Director General of the Voice of Nigeria and founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Osita Okechukwu, claims that the speculated decamping of Gov Peter Mbah of Enugu State from the Peoples Democratic Party would mark the end of PDP in the South-East Region of Nigeria.

Although Gov Mbah has not officially announced that he is leaving PDP, there are speculations that he would join the ruling party on Tuesday. The Chairman of the Caretaker Committee, APC, Enugu State chapter, Dr Ben Nwoye, had on Saturday in Enugu told APC supporters that Gov Mbah was joining the party.

Speaking on the possible fallout of Mbah’s defection with newsmen in Enugu on Sunday, Okechukwu said the decision was “a pragmatic, rational, and inevitable decision”, and symbolized the end of PDP in the South-East.

Okechukwu said the development was in fulfillment of the prophesy of former Senate President Dr Chuba Okadigbo, whom he quoted as saying that PDP “pays good deeds with bad coins”.

He said Gov Mbah’s exit had vindicated Okadigbo. He cited PDP’s alleged undoing of the people of the South East to include “the 1999 Jos presidential primary where the former Vice President and PDP co-founder was sabotaged, as well as “the 2003 election where Ndigbo naively ignored the Buhari/Okadigbo ticket’.

Okechukwu alleged that PDP lacks equity and justice, especially in 2023, when the party breached the Fourth Republic’s long-standing zoning convention.

Quoting him, “The last straw that broke the PDP’s camel’s back is the deliberate marginalization of the South East during the controversy over the National Secretary position.”
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He quoted the communiqué issued by the PDP South East Zonal Executive Committee (ZEC) after its meeting at the Government House, Enugu, on May 14, 2023, which warned that “In the event that the South-East’s position that Sunday Udeh-Okoye should replace Senator Samuel Anyanwu, who left to contest the Imo governorship election, is not implemented promptly, the South-East PDP, as a family, will be compelled to reconsider our relationship with the PDP going forward.”
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Okechukwu also referenced remarks by former Senate President and PDP Board of Trustees Chairman, Senator Adolphus Wabara, who “decried the continued trampling of the South-East PDP despite the region’s unwavering loyalty to the party since 1998.”

In his view, Gov Mbah’s anticipated defection to APC was a result of PDP’s “serial betrayal, neglect, and abuse of the South East”.

In his words, “Governor Mbah’s exit is not an isolated event as Mbah cannot join the ADC hijacked by characters who dislocated PDP. It is the final chapter in the South-East’s disillusionment with a party that failed to reward faithfulness, fairness, and friendship.”