Former spokesperson for the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Council in 2019, Umar Sani, has said the defection of Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, to the All Progressives Congress will not shake the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), describing Mbah’s move as “swimming against the tide.”
Speaking on ARISE NEWS on Wednesday, Sani said, “I can assure you that the defection of Mbah to APC will not rattle the PDP because he is swimming against the tide.”
The PDP suffered further damage on Tuesday as Enugu State governor, his cabinet and three members of the House of Representatives from Kaduna State dumped the party for the APC.
Mbah said his defection was driven by a desire to advance the collective interests of the South-East and strengthen the region’s voice at the federal level.
“I think it is high time we stopped fragmented politics in the South-East. My decision to move to the APC was for the greater interest of Ndi-Enugu and the South-East at large,” Mbah said.
Sani, however, dismissed reports of an internal crisis rocking the PDP, insisting that the party’s current challenges were “externally induced.”
This comes after the Kaduna State PDP caucus in the House of Representatives lost three members to the ruling party following their defection to the APC.
The defectors — Abdulkarim Ahmed (Kaduna South), Aliyu Mustapha (Ikara/Kubau), and Sadiq Ango-Abdullahi (Sabongari) — announced their defection in separate letters read by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas during Tuesday’s plenary.
The lawmakers cited what they described as “the lingering crisis in the PDP” and the need to key into President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda as reasons for leaving the party.
In a letter addressed to the PDP Chairman of Makera Ward, Kaduna South Local Government Area, Ahmed explained his decision to resign from the party.
“The constant internal conflicts and factionalism within the PDP, which have climaxed into an elongated party crisis, are undesirably impacting my ability to effectively represent my constituency and accomplish my obligations optimally,” he wrote.
Sani further stated, “The PDP is not even shaken or even bothered by all this induced crisis within the party. I say induced crisis because we know it is the voice of Jacob and the hand of Esau. What is happening within the party is something that is coming from outside the party, using some instruments within the party to create some type of confusion and chaos.”
According to him, while there may be leadership issues at the party’s national level, the PDP remains firmly rooted in the states — particularly Enugu — where he maintained the party’s dominance remains unshaken.
“The party is not domiciled in the headquarters of the party. We only have issues of leadership, but not the workings of the party within the states. Enugu State, from 1999 to date, has always been a PDP state,” he said.
