Delta defection: PDP fights back, drags Oborevwori, Okowa to court

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national leadership vowed yesterday to challenge in court the defection of Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, his predecessor Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, and the entire party structure in the state.

This comes after a wave of defections rocked the party, with Senator Ebere Wabara, chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT), predicting that the All Progressives Congress (APC) would soon implode.

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The PDP’s National Working Committee (NWC) instructed its legal counsel to launch legal procedures to recover the party’s “stolen mandate” in the oil-rich state after an intense six-hour closed-door meeting Tuesday at its national secretariat in Abuja.

As it announced that its NEC meeting would take place on May 27, 2025, the party also instructed its South-South Zonal Caretaker Committee to supervise its operations in Delta State.

Wabara added that there was no reason to be alarmed, calling Okowa and Oborevwori’s departure from the PDP a blessing in disguise.

The acting National Chairman, Ambassador Umar Damagum, told reporters during a meeting of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) that the party will be able to regain its mandate by going to court.

PDP chairman said: “I want to use this opportunity to once again condemn what happened in Delta State. We’ve taken it with all sorts of regret and the pains that have gone down with us.

‘’I want to also use this opportunity to tell Nigerians that election is not conducted by the NWC. They (APC) can coerce, cajole and intimidate our members into joining them but they can only do that because they feel they have what it takes.

“So I want to urge our supporters to remain calm. We’ve just instructed the Zonal Caretaker Committee to oversee the party in Delta State after dissolving all the structures that were there since majority of them have shifted. Soon, we will constitute a caretaker committee.”

The chairman of the PDP BoT, Wabara responded to the defections by saying that while the party will miss the defectors, it will not lose all of its money in 2027.

“APC will soon implode as a result of the defection of PDP members coming to displace loyal APC faithful who have laboured to build their party.

“The PDP will laugh last because very soon, there will be implosion in the APC. Those people joining the APC will soon want to displace the party members who have built the APC over the years. The displaced APC members will look for where to go, and they will simply come over to the PDP.”

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“It was expected, and I think we should expect more. But there’s nothing to worry about. That’s politics. We long expected such defections and we know the reason: Some are doing so for second tenure, and some for protection.

“Those people defecting know that in 2027, the outcome of the election may not reflect the true will of the people. They may be afraid that the results of the elections may be compromised but Nigerians will not allow such broad-day robbery again. “The idea of the electoral body writing and announcing any results and asking aggrieved parties to go to court will not work again. Nigerians will vigorously resist anything undemocratic because this country must be made to work for the good of all.

“The decampees fear that the APC might want to give one or two states to the opposition to create the impression that the election was democratic. But the bitter truth is that the 2027 election will be between the APC and Nigerians determined to rescue their country from political hijackers” he added.

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Meanwhile Okowa on Tuesday during a Television programme stated that he informed former vice presidnet Atiku before defecting to the APC.

He said: “I did communicate with him that we were going to have stakeholders meetings and that we were going to have the stakeholders’ meetings this week (last week) and that it was going to be a leadership meeting and the outcome of that meeting was going to determine our next path because we were no longer comfortable with the PDP.. I also know that he is already heading out of the PDP from the communications he has passed on to me and that Nigerians know already.