A founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Osita Okechukwu, has described the defection of Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC as a watershed moment in the region’s political history, signalling what he called the “final goodbye” of the South East to the PDP.
Speaking with journalists in Enugu yesterday, Okechukwu hailed Mbah’s move as “a pragmatic, rational and inevitable decision,” noting that it symbolizes the complete collapse of PDP’s once formidable influence in the region.
According to him, the party that began the Fourth Republic in 1999 with control of all five Southeastern states now has none left in 2025.
Okechukwu recalled the words of the late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, who once lamented that the PDP “pays good deeds with bad coins.”
He said Governor Mbah’s departure validates Okadigbo’s warning, citing his experiences, from the 1999 Jos presidential primary where he was allegedly sabotaged, to the 2003 elections when Ndigbo “naively ignored” the Buhari/Okadigbo ticket.
He further accused the PDP of showing “utter disregard for equity and justice,” especially during the 2023 general elections when it abandoned the long-standing zoning arrangement that had guided power rotation since 1999.
“At the Port Harcourt presidential primary, no southern aspirant participated, despite repeated appeals for fairness and rotation.
“The last straw that broke the camel’s back was the deliberate marginalisation of the South East during the controversy over the National Secretary position,” Okechukwu said.
He referenced the communiqué issued by the PDP South East Zonal Executive Committee (ZEC) after its meeting at the Enugu Government House 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.”
He also recalled comments by former Senate President and PDP Board of Trustees Chairman, Senator Adolphus Wabara, who had “decried the continued trampling of the South East PDP despite the region’s unwavering loyalty to the party since 1998.”
In conclusion, Okechukwu said that Governor Mbah’s decision was long overdue, considering the PDP’s “serial betrayal, neglect and abuse” of the South East zone.