The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has given reasons for dissolving its executives in Akwa Ibom State, citing divided loyalty and alleged allegiance to Governor Umo Eno, who recently dumped the party for the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Speaking during a live appearance on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme on Thursday, the PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, said the party could not continue to tolerate a state structure that was “practically controlled by someone who had openly declared for another party.”
“In Akwa Ibom State, the governor has left. We observed at the level of the National Working Committee that the executives in that state were aligning with the APC. Section 10, Subsection 6 of our constitution is clear: no member of the party shall align with another party or group to undermine the PDP. You cannot belong to two parties at the same time,” Ologunagba stressed.
According to him, the executives’ actions undermined the PDP’s interests, especially after Governor Eno was caught on tape boasting that he would be “in charge of the two parties” in the state.
The development marks a significant turning point for the party, which had held sway in Akwa Ibom since the return of democracy in 1999. However, its dominance suffered a major blow when Governor Eno defected to the APC on June 6, making him the second PDP governor in the South-South, after Delta State’s Sheriff Oborevwori, to cross over within two months.
Four months after his defection, the PDP leadership in Abuja finally moved to dismantle the state executive, in what many observers see as an attempt to reassert control and rebuild its structure ahead of future elections.
