The gale of defections from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Southeast region and other disenchantments within its fold, might spell doom for the party in the zone in the coming days, writes LAWRENCE NJOKU, Southeast Bureau Chief.
Main opposition political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may not have bargained for what is currently playing out in the Southeast region. The party, which lost control of power at the national level after 16 years in 2015, has literally become a leper in the Southeast geopolitical zone as it is being avoided by politicians and people of the region, including those that had benefitted from it.
The mass resignation from the PDP to other political platforms, which started last year, took another dimension last Tuesday when a former governor of Imo state, Emeka Ihedioha dumped the party. Ihedioha had been with the party since 1998. But he announced his resignation in a letter dated April 23, 2024, addressed to the PDP chairman in Mbutu ward, Aboh Mbaise Local Council of the state.
The letter read in part: “Since 1998, I have contributed my quota to the development and transformation of PDP as one of the founding members. All these years, I have taken pride in the fact that the PDP is a party that will always look inward for internal reform and provide credible leadership for the people, whether in power or outside power. I have had the benefit of serving and benefitting from the party at various levels.
“Regrettably, in recent times, the party has taken on a path that is at variance with my personal beliefs. Despite my attempt to offer counsel, the party is sadly no longer able to carry out internal reforms, enforce its own rules or offer credible opposition to the ruling All Progressives Congress.”
Operation Follow Your Leader
IHEDIOHA did not leave alone. Twenty-five other members of the party, who had served in various capacities at the zonal and state levels, joined him to quit the same day.
Those involved were BoT member, Chris Okewulonu; zonal officer, Stanley Ekezie; Zonal Publicity Secretary, Austin Okeke; former House of Reps member, Obinna Onwubuariri; State Legal Adviser, Kissinger Ikokwu; State Publicity Secretary, Emenike Nmeregini; Zonal Organising Secretary, Emeka Nwokeke; Aboh/Ngor Okpala Federal Constituency candidate in the 2023 elections, Chibuzo Agulana and Secretary, Imo PDP Elders Council, Prof. Obioma Iheduru.
Others are state Assistant Treasurer, David Abanihi; Zonal Secretary, Mrs. Amarachi Owuamanam; Obowo Local Council Chairman, Sambazz Ihearureme; Zonal Woman Leader, Ruth Nkwocha; Ezenna Okoro, Mishael Ozoemena, Ajuluchkwu Eze, Chimezie Onuoha, Ezeagwula Emeka Sunday, Ikemba Columbus Akalonu, Johncee Nwaiwu, Modestus Ezekwe, Marcel Nwankwo, Ozioma Agu, Emma Nwaebo, among others.
A day after the resignation of Ihedioha, the State Chairman of the party, Chief Charles Ugwu, also resigned. Aside from the state chairman, former Deputy Governor, Gerald Irona; former Vice Chancellor, Prof. Placid Njoku; former lawmaker, Ikenga Mayor Eze, former Chief of Staff, Vin Udokwu; Youth Leader, Anozie Udenwa; state Assembly candidates, Unachukwu John and Pius Omah also left the party.
Others include former commissioner, Sly Enwerem; Nkiruka Ibekwe, Martin Opara, Ann Njoku, Angus Okorie, Edward Ezeh, Ben Mere, MacDonald Enwerem, Chibuike Maduike and Ike Uche.
There were also Jonathan Onyeneke, Getrude Iloemeh, Chidi Ugochukwu, Goddy Nwabekee, Chisom Dominic, Anselm Ikwu, Emeka Amajirionwu, Patrick Okoro, Emeka Udeh and Okoronkwo Rex, among others.
Resignation Foretold
THE resignation of these members from the Imo State chapter of the party was the height of the power struggle and silent ‘war’ over the control of the soul of the party in the state that started in 2020.
Sources stated that soon after he lost his office to the incumbent Governor, Hope Uzodimna, in January 2020 by the verdict of the Supreme Court, Ihedioha had moved to sustain the party structure, which he built over the period to enable him leverage the platform to re-contest the office in 2023, as the same platform had worked for him in 2019. Having become the leader of the party in the state by providence, he was investing resources to deepen its acceptance and reach in the state.
In November 2021, however, a spanner was thrown in his works when the national leadership of the party appointed Senator Samuel Anyanwu as the national secretary of the party. Anyanwu is from Imo State and also had his eyes on the governorship slot of the state. He was prepared to use his office to achieve his ambition irrespective of what Ihedioha had invested in the party.
Soon the pendulum changed. Anyanwu became the leader of the party in the state following the office he occupies. The national leadership also agreed with him by extending the needed courtesies. He was said to have brought his influence to bear on the state executive that was loyal to Ihedioha, with a view to making them switch loyalty. But the state leadership was not prepared to take that and so was at loggerheads with Anyanwu. However, Anyanwu manoeuvered his way and got the party to look towards his side for its governorship ticket in the November 2023 governorship election against Ihedioha’s ambition. This manifested during the governorship primary of the party in the state held in April last year, which he won. It was at that point that Ihedioha was said to have started withdrawing from the party as he was conspicuously absent from the governorship primary and never campaigned for the party during the governorship election.
Few months later, members of the state executive loyal to Ihedioha began to resign from the party.
On Sunday, June 23, last year, seven members of the executive announced their resignation from the party, insisting that its governorship candidate in the November 11 election (Anyanwu) did not have what it takes to govern the state.
Then state Publicity Secretary, Collins Opurozor, who spoke on behalf of others, had blamed Anyanwu for their decision to quit as well as being responsible for the crisis in the party in the state.
“Since Senator Anyanwu became the national secretary of the party, he has never relented in deploying the powers of his office to fight members of this Working Committee and intimidate even ordinary members of the party. Endless strife, mindless wars and erosion of all democratic values and principles have now defined and defiled Imo PDP.
“Day after day, Anyanwu still sponsors very few loyalists to cook up puerile petitions against us and flood the National Secretariat with such inanities. On the basis of those contrivances, he has continued to threaten to dissolve the party in Imo State. Even after we have defeated him at the Supreme Court, Samdaddy has remained unrelenting and unrepentant in his destructive agenda,” they had said.
Few days later, they all joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) and worked against the PDP during the November 11, 2023, governorship election in the state that was won by Uzodimma.
The back and forth in the Imo State chapter of the PDP has continued after the exit of the former officials. Then state chairman, Chief Charles Ugwu, who decided to stay put when others left after the election, was caught in the hooks of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged conspiracy and fraud amounting to N3.6 billion. The development was in the midst of a suspension order slammed on him by members of the party over certain anomalies in his leadership.
Implications for PDP
IHEDIOHA’S resignation may not signal the end to the mass defection that has greeted the PDP in the Southeast in the past few months. Since the conclusion of the 2023 general election, the party has not fared well in the region. Those who were part of its success story, those who have gained mileage politically using the platform, soon realised that there was no future with it and are running into the All Progressives Congress (APC).
So far, former senators Uche Ekwunife and Stella Oduah, who were the party’s senatorial candidates in Anambra State in the 2023 elections, have quit the party and joined the APC.
Also, Senator Chuka Utazi and former Minister, Fidelia Njeze, from Enugu State have left the party to join the APC. In Ebonyi State, former senator Obinna Ogba, who left the Senate in 2023 after losing his re-election bid, is leading the group of those who have left the PDP in the state.
In Abia State, former Chief of Staff, Anthony Agbazuere, is leading several others who have decamped so far.
This is happening in a zone that had prided itself as the fulcrum of the PDP, as the party controlled the five states of the region in 1999. Its dwindling fortunes began in 2002 when it lost Anambra State to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). Anambra was followed by Imo in 2007, then Ebonyi and Abia states joined the fold of its lost territory. Currently, the party’s presence can only be noticed in Enugu State.
The way it is, even in Enugu where the party is in control at the moment, there are no strong indications that it would sustain its foothold in the state until the next elections with the way its members are behaving.
Recently, however, six members of the state House of Assembly elected on the platform of the Labour Party (LP) boosted the strength of the party in the state. But political watchers believe their move to the PDP was an effort to secure the positions they hold in the Assembly, which came under threat by the sack of some members from LP by the courts.
Amid the defection crisis, there is also a contention over the position of the national secretary of the party between the occupant, Anyanwu, and Sunday Ude-Okoye from Enugu State. The matter is currently in court.
When Anyanwu stepped out to contest the governorship election in Imo State in November, last year, stakeholders of the party had met in Enugu and unanimously endorsed Ude-Okoye as his replacement.
At the end of the meeting held at the Government House, Enugu, in October, last year, National Vice Chairman, Southeast, Ali Odefa, had stated that the decision was taken in the best interest of the party, stressing it was to strengthen the party in the region. However, while Anyanwu faced the governorship contest, it was discovered that he did not submit a letter of resignation from office to the party leadership.
This prompted a High Court in Enugu to order the PDP to replace Anyanwu as the party’s national secretary with Ude-Okoye in October 2023. But the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) had countered the order in a motion filed the next day.
The NWC had asked the court to set aside the order, arguing that, “it was obtained by fraud and suppression of material facts”, as well as faulting the order for not being specific as to the position Ude-Okoye should fill.
Despite the objection of the NWC, the zonal caucus had met again in Enugu, insisting that Anyanwu had automatically resigned his position as the national secretary in line with Section 47 of the party’s constitution by picking the party’s ticket to contest for governorship of his state.
Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, who briefed the press after the meeting, stated they would no longer tolerate the delay in the ratification of Ude-Okoye as the national secretary.
He had said: “We have carried the banner of PDP in the Southeast with great pride. So, when we have come together, as a people on a matter that affects us as PDP members in the Southeast and a decision is taken in line with our party’s constitution and electoral guidelines, I think it would be a mistake if that position is disrespected.”
Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BOT) of the party, Adolphus Wabara, who attended the meeting, echoed a similar sentiment when he said he was pained that the national leadership of the party had treated the Southeast zone with levity.
While the Southeast leadership were waiting on the national leadership to act on their request, Anyanwu returned after he was defeated in the governorship election and in a fresh twist, obtained an order of Federal High Court, Abuja, presided by Justice Inyang Ekwo, restraining anyone from appointing any person in the capacity of acting national secretary until 2025 when his four years tenure would have elapsed.
Currently, an appeal backed by some members of the party in the Southeast has been lodged against the decision of the Federal High Court on the matter. While a decision is awaited, what however, is not contestable is the bad blood the issue has generated. This, combined with the gale of defections and other disenchantments in the party, might spell doom for the PDP in the coming days in the Southeast region.
