The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has resolved to initiate legal proceedings against the Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, and other key stakeholders who recently defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The party’s leadership, after a marathon six-hour closed-door meeting at its national secretariat in Abuja on Tuesday, directed the PDP National Legal Adviser to commence the process of reclaiming what it termed the party’s stolen mandate in Delta State.
In a communiqué released following the meeting, the party directed its national legal adviser to initiate a legal process to reclaim its mandate from the Delta State governor and others who defected from the party in the state.
Moving to stabilise its structure in the state, the party leadership appointed Emma Ogidi, its South-South Zonal Chairman, to take charge of affairs in Delta and lead reorganisation efforts.
The Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, said, “We have also instructed the national legal adviser to recover our mandate that they have taken away. The fortune of this party cannot be just left in the hands of our adversaries, so you (the national legal adviser) will take legal action to retrieve those mandates.
“We’ve just instructed the zonal caretaker committee to oversee the party in Delta, after dissolving all the structures that have already been there since the majority of them have shifted.”
Beyond the immediate concerns surrounding defections, the NWC also adopted key recommendations from it governors’ forum.
The committee fixed May 28 for the party’s next National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting and scheduled the PDP National Convention to hold from August 28 to 30, 2025.
Governor Oborevwori, his deputy, Monday Onyeme, and a wide circle of political allies, including commissioners, local government chairmen, and the grassroots structure of the PDP in Delta, officially joined the APC on April 23.
They were received by top APC leaders, including Vice President Kashim Shettima, APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, and the Imo State Governor and Chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, Hope Uzodimma.
Also defecting was a former Delta State governor and PDP’s 2023 vice-presidential candidate, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, in what many observers have described as a massive political realignment that dismantled the PDP’s decades-long grip on the oil-rich state.
Describing the move as more than mere a defection, the APC hailed it as a “movement,” signalling a major political shift ahead of the 2027 general elections.
