South-east PDP laments defection of Peter Obi, Umahi, others, seeks reconciliation

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South-east zone has lamented how its fortunes have dwindled in the region over the years as a result of the defect.

“Today, when you look at other parties, whether it is Labour Party, All Progressives Congress or the New Nigeria Peoples Party, and so on, you are actually talking about PDP members,” Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State, who is the leader of the PDP in the region, said on Monday.

Mr Mbah said this at the party’s zonal meeting in Enugu, the Enugu State capital. The event was attended by the party’s bigwigs in the zone, including former top political office holders in the region.

Although Mr Mbah did not mention names of PDP members whose defections have hurt the party’s fortune in the region, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and the Minister of Works, David Umahi, are among the top political figures who abandoned the party before the last general election.

Mr Obi, a former governor of Anambra State on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and later the vice-presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2019 election, last year defected to the Labour Party to contest the February 2023 presidential election. He ended up coming third in the election.

On his part, Mr Umahi, after winning his second term in office as Ebonyi State governor on the platform of the PDP in 2019, defected to the APC in 2020. He contested and won the Ebonyi South senatorial seat in the February 2023 election on the platform of the APC. But shortly after his swearing-in as a senator, he was appointed by the APC administration of President Bola Tinubu as Minister of Works.

Mr Mbah and other speakers on Monday said there was a need to begin the process of reconciling its aggrieved members who defected to other political parties.

He urged party leaders and faithful in the region to rise to the task of recovering its lost ground and rebuilding the party to its pre-eminent position in the years past.

Mr Mbah said there was a need to rejig the party’s financial, administrative and operational strategies.

He expressed a strong conviction that the party would rise again in the zone.

“As the National Vice Chairman South-East rightly observed, we have shed a lot of weight,” the governor said, pointing out the exodus of PDP members in the zone to the Labour Party, All Progressives Congress and the New Nigeria Peoples Party.

He added: “But providence has placed a lot on us in the history of the party that we now have to steer the affairs of the party and pull it back to its former glory, to that pre-eminent position we have always held in the historical and political development of this country.

“And in doing that, we have a couple of areas we have to look into, such as financial, administrative, and operational strategies to bring us back to pre-eminence.”

The governor further said that it was time for the party to begin to craft a strategy on how it could get back to that “pole position” that it had always occupied.

“It means we have to first of all consolidate our support base as a party, and now reach out to our brothers and sisters, who may have felt aggrieved for one reason or the other and left the party to see how we can bring them back,” he said.

Earlier in an address of welcome, the South-East National Vice Chairman of the Party, Ali Odefa, also called on party faithful and leaders in the region to brace for the challenge that would engender the resurgence of the party in the zone and beyond.

“I would implore all of us to know that the fortunes of the party in the last year have dwindled so badly and the onus is on all of us to see whatever efforts we can put in to make sure that we redeem the past glory of the party,” he said.

He opined that it was only through the collective efforts of members that the party could return to the enviable height it used to be in the zone.

Mr Odefa, who recalled how PDP used to have five governors in the zone some years back, said “It reduced to four, then three, and one ran away.

“It remained only two and after the last election, we only have one seated with us here – Governor Mbah.

But by the grace of God, some of our candidates in other states are in court.

“So, it is our prayers that the one we already have will be retained and the ones that are pursuing their cases in court will win.

“We must do everything to get our party back on track,” Mr Odefa further said.

The Chairman, Board of Trustees of the party and former Senate President, Adolphus Wabara, assured that the party would bounce back in the region, given Mbah’s leadership quality.

According to Mr Wabara, nothing will happen to PDP, adding “All these people will come back because this is their home.”

“So, I do not want us to be discouraged. Let us continue to have hope and belief in PDP,” he said.

The meeting was attended by the Deputy Governor of Enugu State, Ifeanyi Ossai, former governors of Imo, Chief Achike Udenwa and Chief Emeka Ihedioha; former governor of Ebonyi State, Sam Egwu, and Zonal Woman Leader, Ifeyinwa Morah, as well as state party chairmen, including Augustine Nnamani of Enugu State.