Ripples in South-South over governors’ defection
yarkarkara
By Emma Amaize, Regional Editor, South-South; Egufe Yafugborhi; Emma Unah; Ike Uchechukwu; & Ochuko Akuopha
The exit of many South-South governors from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) has triggered contrasting reactions in the oil-rich region, with their political godfathers and mentors sharply disagreeing with or assenting to their political maneuverings.
From 1999, the South-South has been a traditional PDP-dominated region, but the political norm dramatically altered in 2025, and tongues are wagging over the development.
Governor Umo Eno’s decision to side with Senate President and former state governor Godswill Akpabio, with whom Emmanuel still has a running battle, at the expense of his predecessor and godfather, former governor Udom Emmanuel, is causing a stir in Akwa-Ibom State.
Since his daughter, Hon. Erhitake Ibori-Suenu, a member of the House of Representatives, defected from the PDP for the APC in 2024, Chief James Ibori, a former governor of Delta State, has had no issues with Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and former governor Ifeanyi Okowa for joining the APC.
Despite not publicly criticizing the PDP, Ibori’s soul left the party after Okowa prevented him from fielding David Edevbie, his preferred candidate for governor, in the 2022 primary. He is no longer involved in state politics and is instead observing the dance moves of the pair.
The effects of former Governor Ben Ayade’s 2020 switch from the PDP to the APC are still being felt in The People’s Paradise in Cross River State.
The first section of this enlightening report by Saturday Vanguard discusses the undercurrents in Akwa Ibom, Delta, and Akwa Ibom States since the governor’s defection, as well as their political mentors and other former governors. In our subsequent edition, we wrap up with the states of Rivers, Edo, and Bayelsa.
Eno forsakes godfather, ex-gov Emmanuel, for Akpabio
Before his defection from the PDP to the APC on June 6, Governor Umo Eno was uniformly loyal to Obong Victor Attah, Godswill Akpabio, and Deacon Udom Emmanuel, all former governors under the current democratic dispensation, separated by succession conflicts. He dubbed Emmanuel, who ignored Akpabio’s disapproval to install him as governor in 2023, his political father. He designated Akpabio, who opposed Attah, as his political grandfather and Obong Attah as his political great-grandfather.
For Eno, the perceived unbroken loyalty to the three former governors is logical. Emmanuel could not have made him governor if Akpabio didn’t make him governor, and Akpabio couldn’t have made Emmanuel governor if Obong Attah had not projected the senate president to the political limelight.
When Governor Eno broke the PDP’s hold on the state and joined the APC out of complete loyalty to Senate President Akpabio, it was a betrayal. His predecessor, Emmanuel, who is still a PDP leader, never gave his approval.
Eno, however, defended his action, saying, ”I am the one in the driver’s seat today. I am the one holding the steering wheel, and I know where there will be no traffic jam. I know where there will be no potholes.”
”That’s why I have chosen to take Akwa Ibom on an expressway—free of traffic and potholes. I am the driver who can see clearly. When you are pursuing an elephant, you don’t let a dog stop you on the road,” he added.
As it stands in Akwa Ibom politics, Eno is nonaligned with his recognized godfather, Emmanuel, who made him governor. His loyalty has entirely changed to Senate President Akpabio.
Ex-gov Emmanuel is circumspect with Eno
Emmanuel remains a proud member of the PDP in Akwa Ibom State, along with another political godson, Ini Ememobong, the only bigwig who damned Eno’s threat to resign his super-commissioner role in Eno’s administration in protest over the defection. This speaks to the challenge Eno faces in his drive towards a second-term bid.
Stating his position on Eno’s defection through Stephen Abia, his media aide and a lawyer, Emmanuel explained why he refrained from issuing “a statement or granting an interview in response to political developments in his home state.”
”This is in line with the decision to allow the governor, Pastor Umo Eno, a free hand to run the state without interference. He (Emmanuel) is keeping to his promise of returning to private practice and allowing the governor to take full charge of moving the state forward.”
Meanwhile, former Governor Emmanuel, Emmanuel Enoidem, SAN, Ini Ememobong, and Lady Ime Essien Udom have been drafted into the Central Planning Committee for the upcoming PDP National Convention.
The quartet is expected to reenergize the Akwa Ibom PDP and make strategic contributions to the party’s National Convention, slated for November in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State.
Senator Udoedehe and Gabriel plan Eno’s crash
Other upset PDP members have regrouped into the ADC coalition, with Duke Gabriel as the state chairman and Senator John Akpan Udoedehe as leader, providing a third force to upstage Eno and what remains of the PDP in 2027.
Attah leaves active politics
The renowned founder of contemporary Akwa Ibom State, Governor Obong Attah, has recently shown reluctance to participate in active party politics in the state.
The Ayade/Imoke fight led to the PDP’s
collapse in C-River
Senator Bassey Otu was elected as the governor of Cross River State on the platform of the APC in 2023. However, the defection of Otu’s godfather and former governor of the state, Prof. Ben Ayade, from the PDP to the APC in May 2020 is the greatest undoing of the PDP in the state.
If Senator Liyel Imoke, who is Ayade’s predecessor, had the benefit of hindsight, he would not have installed him as governor. After Imoke, who took over from ex-governor Donald Duke, the arrangement was for Senator Gershom Bassey to succeed him. But he opted for Ayade, and Imoke regrets that singular decision to date.
Ayade deserted the PDP in 2020 shortly after the party congresses in January because outside forces had edged him out of the control of the party structure in his northern senatorial district following the demise of Senator Rose Oko.
In a bye-election for Oko’s replacement, Ayade sponsored Senator Stephen Odey, who clinched the PDP Senate ticket and won a landslide, allegedly through external manipulation. The judiciary dethroned Odey, and his opponent, Jarigbe Agom, was sworn in as the elected candidate.
In addition to the political damage, the external forces that backed Agom to take over the senate seat installed Venatius Ikem as the state chairman of the PDP against Ayade’s choice of Barrister Alphonsus Eba.
Ayade became disenchanted and left the PDP. His defection to the APC caused damage to the PDP’s political fortunes because his “Food on the Table” populist policy had thousands of people from across the state on the state’s payroll.
Many people in solidarity joined him in the APC, and that became the biggest humiliation of the PDP in Cross River State
Ayade’s acrimonious struggle with his godfather, Imoke, for the PDP structure greatly undermined the party in the state.
Their relationship became sour and tense. The two could no longer see eye-to-eye, but no one spoke against the other openly.
Ayade stopped providing diesel for Imoke’s generators when his predecessor visited. He also ceased directing the deployment of security men to guard Imoke’s house when he came home.
Ex-governor Duke’s verbal war with Ayade, and how it ended
The only person who spoke openly against Ayade during the 2023 election campaign was ex-governor Duke, whose daughter is married to Asuquo Ekpenyong, then Ayade’s commissioner for finance, also billed to succeed.
Duke accused Ayade of running the state aground, while Ayade threatened to expose the rot Duke left behind in the state. That was where the exchanges ended.
Again, the PDP, with the help of outside influences, fielded a governorship candidate against the zoning arrangement operational in the state. That mistake inflicted costly damage on the party, and it lost the election.
Imoke, now ADC leader, vows to dethrone Ayade’s successor
Currently, Senator Gershom Bassey, the person endorsed as the PDP governorship candidate in the 2023 election, along with his political soulmate, Senator Imoke, has left the PDP for the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Imoke has assured his supporters that the ADC will take over power in the state in 2027. Imoke is popularly known as the “Avatar” of Cross River politics because of his strong influence across the state.
Ibori remains silent while Oborevwori, Okowa, and Uduaghan work together in Delta.
There was no disturbance in Delta State, where Governor Sheriff Oborevwori took the party’s soul to the APC and ended the PDP’s 26-year hegemony in the Big Heart of the Nation.
With the help of his predecessor, former Governor Okowa, who oversaw the process, he was successful in the April 28 adventure.
There doesn’t seem to be any controversy surrounding Oborevwori’s decision; instead, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, a beloved former governor who was abroad on a medical trip at the time of the defection, returned to express support for the governor’s choice.
In August 2018, Dr. Uduaghan defected from the PDP and joined the APC, where he had previously been baptized. However, in September 2020, he left the APC to rejoin the PDP.
He switched to the APC in May, backing Oborevwori wholeheartedly. His daughter, Ms. Orode Uduaghan, a commissioner for humanitarian affairs, also defected with him.
Dr. Uduaghan, Dr. Okowa, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, the former Deputy Senate President (DSP), Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, and the incumbent governor, Oborevwori, recognized Ibori as a political leader.
Before their separate defections to the APC, every prominent politician in the state was a member of the Ibori political family in the PDP. Today, however, things are different.
Ibori, who served as a fellow governor with President Bola Tinubu from 1999 to 2007, has not made his departure from the PDP public. Despite this, he is a close ally of Tinubu.
His backing of Omo-Agege impacted his relationship with Oborevwori, who regarded him as a political father. He was actually one of the first leaders Oborevwori consulted and asked for his blessings to become governor.
The governor honors him as a state political figure. But because God elevated him from speaker to governor through the Owa-Alero-born political spin doctor, he sees Okowa as a gift from God.
The post Ripples in South-South over governors’ defection appeared first on Vanguard News.
