After Mbah’s Defection, PDP Stakeholders Regroup as APC’s Agballah Vows to Challenge Dissolution of SEC

Chuks Okocha in Abuja  

Following the recent defection of Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to the All Progressives Congress (APC), some leaders of the main opposition party under the aegis of Concerned Enugu State PDP Stakeholders, at the weekend restated their resolve to remain in the party to rebuild it ahead of the 2027 elections.
 This is coming on the heels of the declaration by members of the dissolved State Working Committee (SWC) of the APC under the leadership of Ugochukwu Agballah, to seek legal redress over their dissolution by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.
  At its 179th meeting held on October 9, 2025, the NWC of the APC dissolved the Enugu SWC and appointed a seven-man caretaker committee headed by a former state chairman, Dr. Ben Nwoye.

Governor Mbah on Tuesday, October 14, 2025, officially dumped PDP for APC, citing the unjust treatment of the South-east by the PDP leadership.
 The defection has, however, continued to generate mixed reactions, with some members of PDP criticising Mbah’s decision, insisting that it was driven by personal interest rather than the welfare of the people.
 Addressing journalists in Enugu at the weekend, a former PDP State Youth Leader and ex-vice chairman Enugu West senatorial district, Dr. Okey Ozoani, and a former executive Chairman of Udi Local Government Area (LGA)  in the state, Nick Ozonsi, expressed the resolve of other PDP members to remain in the party to rebuild it after Mbah’s exit.
 “I thank God that they have defected; so, we will now come back and rebuild our party, PDP.
 “I urge all PDP members, the true PDP members, to remain resilient and calm as good things are coming,” Okey Ozoani said. 

He questioned the benefits of Mbah’s defection, asking, “Is defecting to APC going to reduce taxation in Enugu State?
 “Don’t you know that Enugu State is the most costly state in Nigeria to live in and highly insecure?”
 He said it was easy for the governor to dump PDP because he was never a pioneer member but joined in 2003 before he was appointed Chief of State to Governor Chimaroke Nnamani and later Commissioner for Finance, adding that even after leaving office in 2007, Mbah went to Lagos State and never related with the party until he became governor in 2023 through the efforts of party members.
 “Of course you know I’m the chairman of Enugu State PDP Stakeholders Forum, and if you follow our trajectory, we have been begging him (Gov mbah), Sir please don’t leave.
 “Whatever is the problem, you don’t leave the party, you stay to build. If (Nyesom) Wike is the problem, we can go to Wike; Wike is not a spirit; he is not living in heaven; we can go to him and say please leave this governor for us; he is our governor, he is PDP governor.”
 On his part, Ozonsi called for a serious reform of the Nigerian political system, saying, “What is wrong is – what you cannot do in party A, how are you going to do it in party B?”
 He added, “Nigerians should take the case of defections and the case of abandoning a party that nurtured them very seriously.”
 Meanwhile, in a recent statement, the aggrieved members of Ugochukwu Agballah-led dissolved SWC, vowed to contest their sack through constitutional means. 

They claimed that the APC Constitution (Articles 21.1, 21.2, 21.3, and specifically Article 21.3(VI)(D) vests disciplinary jurisdiction and first instance intervention in the Zonal Executive Committee (South-east) and contemplates that disciplinary recommendations be referred to the NEC.
 They declared that the NWC had no power to dissolve the SWC on its own.”