By Ehichioya Ezomon, Lagos
From 13 States after the 2023 General Election, the “main” opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), or what remains of it, now controls only eight, with the once self-acclaimed “largest political party in Africa,” which governed 31 States at its apogee, likely to lose more to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) before the 2027 elections.
In 2023, the 13 States under the PDP belt were: Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Rivers; Enugu; Osun, Oyo; Plateau; Zamfara; Adamawa, Bauchi and Taraba. While the party lost Edo to the APC in 2024 via an off-cycle election, it lost Delta, Akwa Ibom, Enugu and Bayelsa in a row in 2025 through defections to the APC.
There’re undisguised hints about further depletion of the PDP on Monday, November 3, 2025, when Bayelsa Governor Douye Diri defected to the APC with his Executive Council members, federal and state lawmakers, leaders, members, and the party structure across the state.
At the venue at the Samson Siasia Stadium in Yenagoa, Bayelsa’s capital city, the huge celebratory crowd harvested speeches underscoring the division in the PDP, which Diri was its chairman of the committee that zoned offices ahead of the party’s November 15 to16, 2025, now doubtful national convention roiling under conflicting court orders “to hold and not to hold” due to alleged breach of the rules for summoning the gathering in Oyo State’s capital city of Ibadan.
The PDP’s been hit by exit of high-profile members, including former Vice President and its presidential candidate in 2019 and 2023, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; his running mate in 2023, former Delta Governor Ifeanyi Okowa; serving and former governors and federal and state lawmakers; and other party chieftains across Nigeria.
Two or three members of the PDP have claimed at different times the positions of its national chairman, national secretary, zonal chairman and state chairmen; and currently, there’re two Acting National Chairmen and two Chairmen of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) – all working at cross-purposes.
Denying any crisis in its fold to warrant the mass defection of members to the APC, the PDP and its stalwarts claim that in his bid to turn Nigeria into a “one-party State” and make himself a “life President,” Tinubu’s resorted to intimidating and inducing opposition members to join the APC – a charge the president, touting himself as “a democrat,” has refuted as untrue, and against the freedom of choice and association guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended).
Governors Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State, Umo Eno (Akwa Ibom) and Peter Mbah (Enugu), who decamped before Governor Diri, somehow papered over the PDP crisis, and focused on “the need to align with the Tinubu government at the centre” for the interest and development of their states.
But besides being motivated by the need to “protect and promote the interest of Bayelsans,” Diri, at a thanksgiving on the eve of the defection, put a lie to the PDP gambit, spotlighting the crisis as a reason he left the party.
“Somebody had to take the decision (to leave the PDP) and I took it on behalf of the state. I took it in the best interest of the state. Some of you might not understand now but later, it will be clear to all,” Diri told the assemblage without elaborating.
At the decamping the next day, Diri, stopping short of pronouncing the PDP dead, said: “I will not denigrate my former party. We were happy with it until some undertakers destroyed it. We tried to salvage it but to no avail. What was going on became incumbent on me to make a decision. I never wanted my state to be buried with the PDP.”
As reported by Vanguard on November 4, the Yenagoa defection was headlined by President Tinubu, represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, and supported by Senate President Godswill Akpabio; Senate Deputy President Barau Jibrin; and APC’s National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yiltwada.
The Chairman of the Progressives Governors’ Forum (PGF) and Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma, led the APC Governors: Chief Oborevwori (Delta), Dr Eno (Akwa Ibom), Chief Lucky Aiyedatiwa (Ondo), Alhaji Ahmed Ododo (Kogi), Sen. Monday Okpebolo (Edo), Chief Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), Dr AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq (Kwara), and Dr Mbah (Enugu); and former Edo governor, Sen. Adams Oshiomhole (APC, Edo North).
Also in attendance were the Minister of Regional Development, Dr Abubakar Momoh; Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri; Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dr. Samuel Ogbuku; and Director of Niger Delta River Basin Development Authority, Chief Ebitimi Amgbare (the last three Bayelsa’s indigenes).
Giving other reasons he joined the APC, Diri said he’s influenced by Tinubu’s love for the growth of Bayelsa and the Ijaw nation, citing the construction of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal road, the second phase of the Nembe-Brass road, and a N4bn tax waiver granted to the state for the procurement of a 60mw gas turbine.
“I consulted with elders and the State Assembly and afterwards resigned from the PDP (on October 15) for obvious reasons. This defection is not only for Bayelsa. It is for Ijaws in Ondo, Edo, Delta and Rivers,” Diri said, adding, “the majority (23 of 24 members) of the state House of Assembly, including the Speaker, have come with me to the APC.”
While two of Bayelsa’s senators, Konbowei Benson and Benson Agadaga, and former Sen. Ben Murray-Bruce and Speaker Abraham Ingobere decamped with Diri to the APC; Deputy Governor Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo and Diri’s predecessor, Sen. Seriake Dickson (PDP, Bayelsa West) remain in the PDP.
To preempt being sacked from office, Sen. Ewhrudjakpo’s filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking to prevent the Bayelsa House Assembly from impeaching him – indicating yet the split that fuels defections from the PDP, benefiting the APC, whose national chairman’s elation was palpable at the event.
Thanking the people of Bayelsa for taking the right decision, and the Ijaw nation for “speaking in one voice through the governor,” the APC chair, Prof. Yiltwada, made clear who heads the Bayelsa chapter of the party, henceforth, and what’s expected of the “leader” going forward.
Presenting the APC flag, muffler and a symbolic broom to Diri, Yilwatda declared: “Today, you take over as the leader of our party in the state. And anything concerning Bayelsa State, the National Working Committee will contact Governor Diri. I will hold him responsible for APC in the state. Today, you take over as a (the) leader of our party in Bayelsa state. Welcome, our leader in Bayelsa.
“With this flag, we want you to sweep out PDP and sweep all the votes to APC in 2027. We must have 100 per cent votes in Bayelsa. Take this as a symbol of strength and authority and make it stronger. We hang this flag for you as a symbol of ownership. You are fully decorated, and may God give you the strength to work till 2027 and deliver President Tinubu.”
As Sen. Akpabio said the APC’s happy to receive Diri, as shown by the large turnout, and praised him for steering the state on the path of peace and “taking the bold step of aligning with the party at the centre,” Governor Uzodimma noted Diri’s progressive step to “embracing the renewed hope agenda” of the Tinubu administration.
On behalf of President Tinubu, Vice President Shettima gave an inspiring speech centred on one foregoing political isolation for integration and national unity, telling Diri that his arrival in the APC “is not the depletion of the opposition” but the “confirmation of the pulse and constitutional clarity of Africa’s largest democracy – the freedom of choice.”
Stating that Diri won’t be judged by “where he was coming from but by where he is going,” Shettima said: “Today, you have shown us that Bayelsa has chosen the light of national integration over the shadows of political isolation. The APC is the party of those who believe that progress can only be guaranteed when we stand together, when we answer the call of the people.
“Your story mirrors that of your people. You have led with calm and dignity. But beneath that calm has flowed a restless commitment to development, to unity, and to peace. You have expanded roads to remote communities and assured them that they are not forgotten.
“You have built bridges where there were barriers. You have lit homes where there was darkness. This is what it means to govern with empathy. We welcome you into this fold to watch and support you as you champion what you have always done.”
In a subtle rebuttal of PDP’s claim that Tinubu influences exodus of opposition members to the APC, Sen. Shettima labelled Diri’s defection as an “act of conviction” and a “homecoming,” saying: “Your Excellency, we are here not for a ceremony of convenience but for a celebration of your conviction. Yours is the story of a leader who has chosen the harder right over the easier wrong.”
Noting Tinubu’s repeated demonstration that “politics is not war but the art of building bridges across rivers of difference,” and that Diri’s shown a profound understanding of the metaphor, Shettima described the governor as “a son of the creeks who has built literal and political bridges across the waters of the Niger Delta.”
“Governor Diri’s defection is a political reunion with a progressive mind whose ideals have always aligned with the philosophy of the All Progressives Congress, APC,” Shettima said. “We are not a house of strangers; we are a family bound by the shared belief that Nigeria can, and must, work for all her citizens.
“And we know you, Your Excellency. We know you as a builder – a builder of infrastructure, a builder of peace, a builder of trust, a builder of the Bayelsa dream,” Shettima added to a rousing applause.
While the APC savours the almost daily swelling of its platform, will more defections from the PDP result in its burial by political undertakers, as foreseen by Governor Diri? That uncanny prospect stares the members in the face, as they grapple with the legal gymnastics that may affect their last-hope national convention this weekend in Ibadan!
* _Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
