Former Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu, has said that the exit of Governor Peter Mbah from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) symbolises the total collapse of PDP’s dominance in the southeast region, where it controlled all five states in 1999 to zero governors in 2025.

Okechukwu, a founding member of the APC, stated that the fall of the party in the region has vindicated the late Senator Chuba Okadigbo, who warned that the PDP’s rewarding of “good deeds with bad coins” would haunt the party.

Okechukwu argued that Okadigbo’s experience — from the 1999 Jos presidential primary, where the former Vice President and PDP co-founder was sabotaged, to the 2003 election, where Ndigbo naively ignored the Buhari/Okadigbo ticket — remains a historic lesson.

Speaking to journalists in Enugu on Sunday, Okechukwu criticised the PDP’s “utter disregard” for equity and justice, especially in 2023, when the party breached the Fourth Republic’s long-standing zoning convention.

He recalled that at the Port Harcourt presidential primary, no southern aspirant participated, despite repeated appeals for fairness and rotation.

“The last straw that broke the PDP’s camel’s back,” Okechukwu noted, “was the deliberate marginalisation of the Southeast during the controversy over the National Secretary position.”

He cited the communiqué issued by the PDP South East Zonal Executive Committee (ZEC) after its meeting at Government House, Enugu, on May 14, 2023, which warned:

“In the event that the Southeast’s position that Sunday Udeh-Okoye should replace Senator Samuel Anyanwu, who left to contest the Imo governorship election, is not implemented promptly, the Southeast PDP, as a family, will be compelled to reconsider our relationship with the PDP going forward.”

Okechukwu also referenced remarks by former Senate President and PDP Board of Trustees Chairman, Senator Adolphus Wabara, who “decried the continued trampling of the Southeast PDP despite the region’s unwavering loyalty to the party since 1998.”

He described the defection of Governor Mbah as a “defining political moment” and a clear indication that the Southeast geopolitical zone has finally bid the PDP goodbye.

He added that Governor Mbah’s defection was “a pragmatic, rational, and inevitable decision”, symbolising the total collapse of PDP’s dominance in the Southeast — from controlling all five state governments in 1999 to having zero governors in 2025.

He maintained that the PDP’s serial betrayal, neglect, and abuse of the Southeast were sufficient grounds for Governor Mbah’s long-anticipated defection.

“Governor Mbah’s exit is not an isolated event, as he cannot join the ADC, hijacked by characters who dislocated the PDP — it is the final chapter in the Southeast’s disillusionment with a party that failed to reward faithfulness, fairness, and friendship,” he declared. (The Guardian)