Dr Okey Ozoani is the chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Concerned Stakeholders Forum in Enugu State. The former youth leader and vice chairman of the party in the state, in this interview with KENNETH OFOMA, speaks on the recent defection of Governor Peter Mbah from the PDP to All Progressives Congress (APC) and moves to rebuild the party ahead of 2027 general election

You are among PDP stakeholders kicking against Governor Peter Mbah’s defection to the APC. What informed that position?

I’m the pioneer youth leader of the PDP in the state, a position a held from 1998 to 2008, and immediate past vice chairman. We have all heard what happened, the disappointment we got from the governor of Enugu State, who left PDP that gave him the ticket, campaigned for him and he won an election and stood by him, spent nights at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC0, beaten by rain and sun, singing on empty stomach to make sure that we claim our mandate. He was announced and sworn-in as PDP governor of Enugu State.

Unfortunately, we never knew that we were swimming in troubled waters because the appreciation to the PDP in Enugu State, which is the headquarters of the party in South-East, was to defect to APC. And the defection was not planned in one day; it was planned rom the inception of his emergence. First of all, he is not a party man.

He was not there during the formation of the party. He joined us in 2003, when Governor Chimaroke Nnamani made him Chief of Staff and later as Commissioner for Finance. From 2007 to 2022, he never came around the political arena. He has never participated in anything politics, whether in his ward, Owo; local government, Nkanu East or Enugu State in general.

That’s why I said he was never a member of the party and was never there for us. He used PDP as a transit vehicle to get to power, and we said okay, it’s a family; but now he has left us. The PDP in Enugu state is intact, strong and formidable because he cannot destroy a house he did not build. We are the people who built PDP from August 30, 1998.

And you, see his plan didn’t start today, after the election he never went around to thank the people who voted for him, he never visited any ward, he never visited any local government, he never even called any state rally to say ‘Enugu people thank you for voting me to be governor.’ I can also tell you that he never even called any party executive from the state, zone, local government or ward to government house for a chat or a meeting as a leader. And you can see that it reflected in his appointments.

Instead of patronizing members of the party, who worked and voted for him, he brought technocrats, so that he can finally sweep out all PDP members. Party politics is a serious business; if you invest you reap. What has a technocrat got to do in Enugu State where the PDP people have suffered?

We held this party for him and he became governor through it. So, what happened is a very unfortunate thing. However, we are not disturbed and we are not moved because people who went to Okpara Square for the defection were hired. Most of them didn’t know why they were there.

Some people, who came from my local government called me and asked where I was. They said they were tasty and hungry because they brought them to Enugu at 8.am and they left by 6.pm. Any time there is an event in Enugu; there is always traffic at the end but there was no traffic after their rally. It was just like the ninth month of prayer. There was normal movement. If there was grassroots mobilization; there will be traffic in Enugu for the next three or four hours that day.

Are you saying that there are still prominent members of the PDP in the state who didn’t defect with the governor and who are ready to rebuild the party?

Yes, there are people who are there, and of course you know I’m the chairman of Enugu State PDP Stakeholders Forum, and if you follow our trajectory, we have been begging him not to leave.

Whatever is the problem you don’t leave the party, you stay to build. If Nyesom Wike is the problem, we can go to him and say please leave this governor for us, he is our governor, he is a PDP governor. If it is Sam Anyanwu; why did you start the fight ab initio? That fight to me was unnecessary. Are you putting Ude Okoye there, Ude Okoye is also a newcomer in PDP.

Yes, I knew when he came from Agbogugu in Awgu North and begged Senator Ike Ekweremadu to run for House of Assembly. I think that was in 2012 or 2013. He was not even there ab-initio, so why are you insisting that Ude Okoye must be the national secretary when you knew that he was not a party man. I don’t think he has ever read the constitution of the party.

It was better they left as we have started rebuilding the party. Our people at the grassroots are there, so let them go for us to take back our party

Anyanwu you wanted to remove is a constitutionally elected national secretary he is our governor, he is a PDP governor. If it is Sam Anyanwu; why did you start the fight ab initio? That fight to me was unnecessary. Are you putting Ude Okoye there, Ude Okoye is also a newcomer in PDP. Yes, I knew when he came from Agbogugu in Awgu North and begged Senator Ike Ekweremadu to run for House of Assembly. I think that was in 2012 or 2013.

He was not even there ab-initio, so why are you insisting that Ude Okoye must be the national secretary when you knew that he was not a party man. I don’t think he has ever read the constitution of the party. Anyanwu you wanted to remove is a constitutionally elected national secretary.

What do you make of the governor’s explanation that he wants Enugu to be connected to the centre and that his decision was a collective one for the interest of the state and not personal interest?

What connection to the centre? You see, these are rhetoric. Anybody who wants to sack his wife will always have a reason to do that. If you want to commit something, you will always have a reason to do that. Which centre do you want to connect to?

You’re connecting to the centre in the year you are leaving. If the National Assembly succeeds in this electoral reform, the election will come by November 2026, so it’s barely a year. So, what is that you are going to get from the centre?

And those who connected to the centre, what have they benefited specially? Ebonyi is connected to the centre. Do they have two ministers? The answer is no; there is nothing special. So, connecting to the centre is a deceitful language. Mbah’s defection to APC is personal. He has a reason to go there; don’t forget that he was one of those governors who sued to scrap the Economic and Financial Crimes C o m m i s s i o n (EFCC).

That couldn’t work; he now came back. Initially he was not heading to APC. He had options; APC was the third option before for the governor. The first option was African Democratic Congress (ADC), and he was told that if he tried that, ADC would be an opposition to the government.

He said okay, he was watching APGA to see how the party will perform in Anambra. Eventually, he now went to APC to cover certain things. There are things they want to cover but it will not work. It’s not going to work because we are on ground and we know what is happening in Enugu.

The crowd that came to Okpara Square they had left; Enugu people know what we are feeling. When he said he is connecting to the centre; did the centre tell you to increase tax in Enugu State? Landlords are increasing their house rent; is it the centre that increased the house rent? The answer is no. If you talk about infrastructure, none is completed.

You look at Hotel Presidential, after the NBA conference, nobody sleeps in the hotel again. Are you telling us about the International Conference Centre, it started with Nnamani. So, what is that that you have done extra? Who owns Landmark? There is nothing you can lay your hands on and say you’ve done in more than two years.

Where is the water he promised? I believe that 180 days is still coming. The white man from Australia took our money and ran away. He never knew that he was not a professional then he brought him. All the oversea tours he went to for economic summits, all the money he brought, where are they, what did you do with it?

That’s the problem when you are working with technocrats. They will always tell you what they feel but they don’t know it, nobody knows it. The few people who are in the government of the governor like the political adviser and the commissioner for local government and chieftaincy affairs, who are seemingly politicians, were sidetracked.

To tell you that the governor doesn’t know about the party, they are just strangers, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) came out and said that he doesn’t know his ward. Can you imagine that? An SSG doesn’t know his ward. Apparently, he doesn’t know his booth and he may not have voted. How can you be an SSG and your local government, Enugu South, election was conducted four times and the Labour Party was winning.

So, it was better they left as we have started rebuilding the party. Our people at the grassroots are there, so let them go for us to take back our party. And I tell you; there will be a crisis. Most people you saw that day at Okpara Square are government appointees. Members of the House of Assembly who came to Okpara Square tare owed for two months.

It is only Enugu State that a speaker stays with his orderly and policemen in one vehicle. The speaker of Enugu State Assembly has only one vehicle in his convoy. One vehicle is his personal car. It never happens in a democracy as the Assembly Is the third arm of government. Again, members of the House who were there moved from LP to PDP and they have now moved to APC.

You never negotiated with anybody. Most of the National Assembly people; he is envious of them. So, whatever he did is not a collective decision of Enugu people. It is his personal decision. You’ve not entered APC and you are fighting Ugo Agballah’s structure. Ben Nwoye who is neither here nor there; he went to a function and said he is in PDP.

He also said he is APC as well as Labour Party. He is just trading with the political environment and eventually he caught Mbah and he is milking him dry. He came back and said he dissolved ward and local government executives without going through the constitution. It is the National Executive (NEC) that dissolves the executive; the constitution of APC is there.

You went to remove Ugo Agballah, you went to their office and scattered the meeting, destroyed the canopy, and that’s the party you want to enter. You’re destroying the structure, so who are you going to work with. Are you going to manufacture human beings? PDP is intact and we are going to prove a point in the coming local government election and the general election.

When they give them tickets; we will look for our people and give them tickets. His election is going to be between a candidate and the people. You will stand and tell them what you have done. That’s what we are going to do this time around. Unfortunately, he is running for a second term. So, we will x-ray his first four yours before we talk about the next four years if at all he gets the ticket.

You said there will be crisis; what type of crisis?

There is no crisis in PDP. It’s APC that there will be crisis. They have not entered APC and they are destroying the structure that is on ground, which they have been operating for four years plus.

Now you are coming with a team, there are people who ran elections in the APC, who did not win and they are waiting patiently for 2027 or 2026 as the case may be. Then you are bringing in a whole lot of decampees; members of the House of Assembly, members of House of Representatives and senators to them.

Who will take the tickets? It’s just like someone who came into a house and wants to overthrow the caretaker, it’s not possible now. Who will now get the ticket? The people who have been waiting patiently for 2026, to maybe, try their luck and you are bringing entirely new people.

That’s when there will be a crisis. It is not only in Enugu State; there will be crisis in APC in the whole country. This massive defection is not good for APC. They think they are enjoying the system, but they will not manage the crisis over who goes for what position or the other in the next elections. The crisis has already started in Enugu State.

Ben Nwoye cannot operate; people who went to Okpara Square have all resigned, so there is nothing again. Ugo Agballah is there; he has gone to court. So, the crisis has started in Enugu State. If you meet the people who went to Okpara Square, they will tell you that they don’t know what is happening, nobody calls for meetings again.

How would you react to the governor’s remark that 80 per cent of PDP executives in the state defected with him to APC?

Yes, 80 per cent of PDP executives defected with him but it doesn’t make a number. That is insignificant to the population of PDP in Enugu State. So, it doesn’t represent anything in the graph of PDP. They can defect with him because he appointed them.

Even the commissioners that defected with him dis so because of their stomach infrastructure though they are not enjoying anything. But because you can’t say no to your master, they went with him. You know how the congress was done in the government house.

The Chief of Staff was writing names of party executives and sending them to the local governments. So, they went with him but we the PDP and the concerned stakeholders of PDP in Enugu state are formidable. Our members are there, they have been calling me and I’m saying hold on, let us get signal from the national.

Meanwhile, we will still be doing our normal meetings and telling the people that it is not over. It is not going to be Uhuru for APC in Enugu State, mark my words. The governor defected and called the whole South-East to Okpara square; he never talked about Nnamdi Kanu, nobody talked about Nnamdi Kanu.

The three APC governors in the South-East were there and you are going to the centre, but you never talked about the shops of Igbos that are being destroyed in Lagos. Your brothers are suffering in Lagos and you are telling me you are connecting with the centre. Which centre are you connecting with? So, what they did is a journey to nowhere.