Over a thousand members of the Labour Party (LP) switched to the All Progressives Congress (APC) over the weekend.
Leading the group was Hon. Sunday Umeha, the LP’s representative in the House of Representatives for the Udi/Ezeagu federal constituency.
Umeha declared his APC defection at a mini-rally at Ibagwa-Aka, in the Igboeze South local government area, in what appears to be a historic electoral victory.
Similar to this, Chief Joshua Ogbonna, sometimes known as “Father Father,” was a business magnate and financier of the Labour Party in the state’s Igboeze South local government area. He led over 1000 party members, including the party’s local government structures, to join the APC.
Umeha explained that he went to the APC rally, which was outside of his home constituency of Udi/Ezeagu, out of support for his friend Chief Ogbonna. He also mentioned that a second rally, which would formally welcome him into the APC, would still take place in Ezeagu, his local government area, in a few days.
Despite citing the unresolvable rift inside his previous party (LP) at the state and national levels as one of the reasons he left the party for the APC, the lawmaker declared that he had already resigned from the Labour Party and registered with the APC in his ward.
Umeha, the first member of the APC to hold an elected office in the state since the party’s founding in 2014, claimed that his choice to join the ruling party was also “because of the need to connect to the centre and bring our people closer because there are a lot of advantages in plugging to the center.”
Citing the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway, the Enugu-Port-Harcourt Expressway, and the Second Nigeria Bridge as examples of significant projects the current ruling party has completed in Igbo territory, he said that the APC has better served the interests of Igbos than the PDP at the federal level.
Chief Uche Nnaji, the APC’s leader in Enugu state and the minister of innovation, science, and technology, expressed his happiness at the entry of trustworthy and grassroots individuals into the state’s APC through Barr George Ogara, his running mate for governor in the general elections of 2023.
“It’s indeed time for us to come together to retrieve power from those who have been using it to oppress the people. What is happening here today, the sheer number of defectors has not happened elsewhere in the state before. I urge all of us to remain steadfast because all of us shall be the beneficiaries when victory is achieved,” he said.
Barr Ugochukwu Agballah, the APC’s Enugu State Chairman, said the party was preparing to unseat the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the Lion Building, Enugu’s seat of power, in 2027 while welcoming the defectors.
According to Agballah, the PDP’s 26-year rule over the state’s governance has only caused people to suffer from high taxes, land grabbing, and the destruction of their means of subsistence in order to build motor parks—tasks that should typically fall under the purview of local governments.
He expressed gratitude to Barr Peter Okonkwo, a party leader from the Nsukka local government area, for helping the party dismantle the LP structure in Igboeze South LGA and for providing the Enugu North Senatorial Zonal Campaign Office.
“Peter Okonkwo is equipped for the redemption of Enugu state and we will not shy away from that task,” he said.
According to Agballah, the defection was the most unique in Enugu State’s decampment history since the general elections of 2023, when all of the ward and LGA executive members, led by the LP local government chairmanship candidate in the most recent LGA election, declared their support for the APC.
“It is a total collapse of structure… today I hand over to you the symbol of our party, our flag; I hand you the broom, which is an insignia of our party and with this broom we are going to sweep in good governance in Enugu state, with this broom we are going to sweep away the reactionary forces that have held our people hostage for 26 years. With this broom we are going to bring back democracy in Enugu state.
“I want to say it here and I want to say it loud and clear to all doubting Thomases, that APC Enugu state is poised to take over the government of Enugu come 2027.
“After the election, I personally started making contacts with our brothers in the Labour Party and other parties; men of goodwill, men of whom we have the same ideological persuasion with, people who believe in good governance.
“And I told them that APC is a purely sanitized party and that this party is going to be the platform for change. APC is the Zion train of Enugu state; it’s the soul train that will take us to our destination.
“We say enough is enough. They are stealing our tomorrow and they tell us tomorrow is here. They have destroyed our businesses, destroyed educational institutions to build motor parks. They have destroyed our economy by excessive taxation.
“That’s why we said we want change. We are the true sons of the leaders of Wawa people that brought Enugu state of our dreams. We are going to restore the dreams of our founding fathers and APC is the platform.
“So I’m happy today that we have credible political Argonauts coming into APC, who will waive the broom and the people will vote.
“We know what happened in Enugu state; the people who have dominion today did not have dominion from God, they stole power and APC is the only platform that can stop the continuous stealing, the continuous rigging of the mandate of the people of Enugu state. APC will stop it.”
Chief Joshua Ogbonna, speaking on behalf of other defectors from the Ibagwa-Aka local government area, described how opponents tried to prevent them from joining the APC by stealing the buses they used to transport the attendees to the event, forcing them to use commercial motorcycles.
“We are more than 1000 that defected to APC today. I’m telling you that work begins today in Igboeze South local government area; it will be ward to ward movement. I’m assuring you that Igboeze South will not come last,” he posited.