Photo: President Tinubu and Mbah in Enugu on Saturday
By Didimoko A. Didimoko, Abuja
There is growing fear within the ranks of the opposition’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the loyalty and commitment of some of the party’s governors to its cause, following rumours that they have pledged allegiance to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Niger Daily News authoritatively gathered that the party is sweating over the commitments of six of its 12 governors, including Sheriff Oborevwori and Peter Mbah of Delta and Enugu states, respectively.
It was further gathered that the fear heightened on Saturday with the visit by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to Enugu State, which is the only state governed by the party in the Southeast.
President Tinubu visited Enugu State at the invitation of Governor Peter Mbah to inaugurate some of his projects, but this has not gone well with some of the party’s stalwarts.
“If there is a project to be commissioned in Enugu, it should be done by a PDP leader or a PDP colleague of the governor. That Governor Mbah chose the president means that something is going on.
“It is ominous that the President was effusive in his praise of Governor Mbah, who is the chosen successor of former Governor Emeka Ugwuanyi, a key member of the defunct G-5 renegade PDP governors who were instrumental to the fall of the party in the 2023 election,” a PDP member in Enugu State told our reporter.
Meanwhile, NDN also gathered that the PDP is sweating over the loyalty of Mbah’s Delta State counterpart, Sheriff Oborevwori, who is allegedly fine-tuning his switch to the APC.
Photo: Gov Oborevwori canvassed support for Tinubu
Oborevwori recently ruffled feathers in the PDP when he urged people of the state to support President Tinubu, noting that if “the president succeeds, I succeed.”
A group, The Concerned Leaders of PDP in the state, recently tasked Oborevwori to come clean on his alleged plot to move to the APC to secure his 2027 ticket and return to Government House Asaba.
The group said, “The rumor mills are agog with stories of your (Oborevwori’s) intention of cross-carpeting to the ruling APC. That you are secretly romancing top aides to HE President Bola Ahmed Tinubu… including the CoS, Femi Gbajabiamila, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos…”
In a letter signed by Theophilus Ekiyor, Ochuko Oghenekome, and Ezekiel Chukwudi, the PDP stalwarts claimed that secret meetings are going on between the governor and the opposition leaders to facilitate a meeting with the president.
Meanwhile, our findings revealed that leaders of the PDP and the opposition APC in the state are concerned about the clandestine plot of Oborevwori, who has reportedly met with a former Speaker of the House of Assembly and a former Senator from the north.
There are also concerns about other governors, including Duoye Diri of Bayelsa and Pastor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom, who unlike their colleagues in the north have refused to criticize the President’s policies and their effects on the populace.
The fear of top PDP leaders, including former President Atiku Abubakar and others, is that unless they make gains in the Southeast and South-South, they risk being washed away in the entire southern regions because of the influence of the president in the Southwest.
“The people of the Southwest are bound to support the President’s reelection bid in 2027. Even Osun, which he lost in 2023, would vote massively for him.
“The situation in the region will be different from 2023 because the people are beginning to feel that attacks on Tinubu from the North are motivated more by tribal and regional considerations, and this could earn him sympathy in the South.
“If the PDP loses its hold in those states, it would be game over,” a former secretary of PDP told our reporter on condition of anonymity.
