A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Enugu State, Dr Alex Chukwuemeka Obiechina, has said Governor Peter Mbah’s decision to leave the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the APC demonstrates foresight and commitment to the state’s future.
Speaking with journalists in Abuja on Monday, Obiechina described the governor’s move as a bold and strategic step that reflects “a care for tomorrow more than today.”
PUO Reports gathered that Governor Peter Mbah, who was elected on the PDP platform in 2023, will be officially received into the APC on Tuesday.
Obiechina commended Mbah for what he described as “uncommon political courage and sagacity,” adding that the governor’s entry into the ruling party was a welcome development for the South East.
“I am personally amazed by the way this young man has brought zeal, excellence, courage, and foresightedness into governance and politics of Enugu State,” he said.
The APC chieftain accused the PDP of causing stagnation in Enugu State over the past 26 years through “impunity, indiscipline, and resistance to change.”
“Here is a governor whose second term is guaranteed. His decision to join us in the APC shows that he cares about tomorrow more than today,” Obiechina stated.
Reflecting on his own experience as the PDP governorship candidate in 2011, Obiechina alleged that the party’s internal impunity cost him the ticket. He described Governor Mbah’s defection as a sign of hope for progressive politics in the South East.
“There is no doubt that the PDP is reaping from its many political sins, including corruption, bad party politics, impunity, and unparalleled indiscipline. I am elated and relieved that the governor of my home state did not waste a minute more in that assembly but joined the APC,” he said.
He further criticized the PDP for marginalizing the South East in national politics, saying, “Apart from denying the South East the opportunity to fly the party’s presidential flag in 1999, 2003, and 2023, the PDP failed to give Mbah a voice in its National Working Committee as the only PDP governor from the region.”
According to him, Mbah’s defection “sweeps away the last remnants of PDP’s political dominance in the South East” and ushers in what he called “the big broom of national progressive politics.”
At the Enugu State Government House on Monday, several members of Governor Mbah’s cabinet also declared for the APC, waving the party’s flag and chanting, “We are in the APC now, Jagaban all the way, APC from bottom to top.”
Those who defected include Dr Lawrence Ezeh, Commissioner for Innovation, Science, and Technology; Dr Amaka S. Ngene, Chairman of the Science, Technical, and Vocational Schools Management Board; and Dr Felix Nnamani, Commissioner for Labour.
