Thursday July 31, 2025
By TheNewsDESK |
The acting National Chairperson of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Umar Damagum, has said that the PDP is hopeful of winning the governorship and other elections in Akwa Ibom State in 2027 despite Governor Umo Eno’s defection from the party to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Mr Damagum stated this on Tuesday in Abuja when a former member of the House of Representatives from Akwa Ibom, Onofiok Luke, and a former commissioner in the state, Ini Ememobong, visited him in his office.
The PDP National Youth Leader, Muhammed Suleiman, and the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, were present during the visit.
Mr Ememobong, a former PDP publicity secretary in Akwa Ibom, refused to join others to defect with Mr Eno to the APC in June. Instead, he resigned his appointment as the commissioner for special duty and Ibom Deep Seaport.
Mr Luke, a former speaker of the Akwa Ibom House of Assembly, is from Nsit Ubium Local Government Area with Governor Eno. He also refused to defect from the PDP to the APC.
Messrs Luke and Ememobong have posted photos and comments on their separate Facebook pages about the meeting with Mr Damagum.
The PDP acting chairperson commended Mr Ememobong for being a “principled politician who is not moved by every wind of inconvenience”.
He said many “credible” PDP stalwarts, who did not defect with Governor Eno, are still very active in the party.
“With these people and the historic love that Akwa Ibom people have for the PDP, we are hopeful to win all the elections in the state,” the chairperson said of Messrs Luke, Ememobong, and other PDP leaders in Akwa Ibom.
The PDP has been plagued by an internal leadership crisis, which has forced many of its members, including federal and state lawmakers, to defect to the APC.
Governor Eno said he left the PDP because of the party’s crisis. He also said he wants to support President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid and align Akwa Ibom with the centre to attract federal support for infrastructural development, especially for the Ibom Deep Seaport project.
Besides Governor Eno, Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State defected from the PDP to the APC.
