AS the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) prepares for its much-anticipated national convention in Kano, party elders and stakeholders are urging politicians who are planning to defect to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to do so without delay.

Top sources within the PDP told the Sunday Tribune that the leadership of the party would prefer a ?clean slate? ahead of the convention, especially in light of recent high-profile defections and ongoing speculation about others who may soon follow suit.

The concern, Insiders say, is that those who are not committed to the party?s future should not be allowed to influence the process of electing a new national executive.

?Whoever wants to leave should leave now because we don?t want them to have any input in the leadership. They can even mislead us anyway,? said a founding member of the party, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

?We want a new leadership that is not tied to the ambitions or manipulations of those planning to betray the party.?

The warning comes amid deepening internal tensions over the defection of Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori to the APC ? an exit the PDP has chosen to downplay publicly, despite the signal it sends about waning influence in some quarters.

While more defections are rumoured to be imminent ? including among lawmakers and former officeholders?PDP stakeholders insist that numbers alone do not guarantee political success.

?In 2015, we had the majority of state governors and still lost the presidential election,? one senior official remarked.

According to him, what Nigeria needs is not a dominant one-party state but a truly competitive democracy.

?The number of governors is immaterial. What matters is preserving multiparty democracy. We may be in trouble now, but should we give in to dictatorship? No. Democracy is worth fighting for.?

The party?s upcoming convention is seen as a crucial moment in repositioning the PDP ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Insiders say the goal is to elect a credible, reform-minded national leadership that will reconnect with the grassroots and rebuild public trust.

Despite setbacks, PDP leaders remain defiant in the face of APC?s growing dominance, which has been aided by a wave of defections and political realignments since President Bola Tinubu assumed office in 2023. However, many within the party argue that a house purged of fair-weather allies is better equipped to recover and offer a viable alternative in the next electoral cycle.

As one party elder put it, ?It?s better we face our storm now than later. Those who want to leave should leave. Those who stay must be ready to rebuild.?

Following the recent Delta stakeholders defection to the APC, PDP had declared its intention to challenge in court what it described as the trading away of its electoral mandates in the state.

This was part of the resolutions reached at a meeting of the party?s National Working Committee (NWC), presided over by the acting National Chairman, Ambassador Iliya Damagum, at the PDP national secretariat in Abuja last week.

The party leadership condemned the mass defections as a betrayal of the people?s mandate and vowed to initiate legal and political steps to reclaim its lost ground.

In a decisive move to reassert control over its Delta structure, the NWC had directed the South-South Zonal Caretaker Committee, led by Chief Emma Ogidi, to immediately take charge of the party?s affairs in the state.

The zonal body was instructed to relocate temporarily to Delta State, take inventory of party assets, and ensure continuity of PDP operations pending the appointment of a full caretaker committee. (Sunday Tribune)

Update news