News
Mass defections hit PDP as Mbah, others expected to join APC
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has revealed that Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, is set to formally switch allegiance from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling party on Tuesday, October 14, 2025, at an event to be held in Enugu.
Confirming the development to journalists shortly after his inauguration at the APC National Secretariat on Friday, the caretaker chairman of the party in Enugu State, Dr. Ben Nwoye, disclosed that Governor Mbah’s defection would not be a solo move.
According to him, the governor will be accompanied by a number of lawmakers and prominent political figures from across the state.
READ ALSO: Rumours as Peter Mbah set to exit PDP
During the inauguration of a seven-member caretaker committee for the Enugu APC, the party’s National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, alongside the Deputy National Chairman (South), Emma Eneukwu, emphasized that the party was intensifying efforts to consolidate its foothold and expand its influence within the South-East region.
Earlier in the week, on Wednesday, the APC National Working Committee had dissolved the Enugu State Executive Committee in preparation for Mbah’s much-anticipated entry into the ruling party.
Speaking further, Nwoye said: “For the past 10 years, Enugu State has remained in opposition. But all that will change on Tuesday, the 14th of October, 2025, when the governor will be declaring for the APC.
“And the governor is not coming alone. The governor is coming in with 260 ward councillors. They will be declaring with the governor. He will be coming in with the 24 members of the House of Assembly. He will be coming in with members of the National Assembly. He will also be coming with the entire Exco.”
While addressing members of the caretaker committee, Yilwatda urged them to focus on rebuilding and repositioning the party for greater success in the state.
The APC National Chairman stated: “We know the challenges that we’re in, the need to rebuild the party, to keep the party, to refocus the party, to ensure that the party expands — expansion in terms of membership.
“We want to see the number of people that we have in the APC increase under your leadership, without forgetting the members that we already have in the APC. You can’t throw away what you have because you want to go and get what you don’t have. We must maintain our members — those who have laboured, who have suffered, who have built the party, who have sustained it. We are the building blocks of the party. We must be sustained, we must be kept, we must be nurtured, we must be honoured. That’s what keeps this party together.
“Secondly, the APC is a home to all. The person who came yesterday, the person that came today, the person that will come tomorrow, and the person that will come next tomorrow will all have equal rights and equal access, based on our Constitution.”
Yilwatda also charged the new committee to ensure that due process is followed in every party activity, adding that discipline and unity remain the backbone of the APC as it prepares for the 2027 general elections.
“The NWC has to follow due process in dissolving the state working committee. Ensure that all legal processes are followed.
“I don’t expect that you will go and form yourself into a group that will work based on personal interests or personal dislike for anyone. The fact that you are in an office means even your enemies must become your friends. You must treat your friends and your enemies equally. You must hold that office because you took an oath, and that oath specifies what you are supposed to do as a leader in the party. That is important for us. That is important for the party.”
Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Governor of Oyo State, on Thursday, finally threw his hats into the ring by declaring his intention to run for president in 2027, with a message – history beckons.
The governor, whose ambition has been a matter of speculations for months now and who had teamed up with forces angling to force President Bola Tinubu, out of power, told a teeming crowd in Ibadan on Thursday that time had come to reset Nigeria.
At a mega-rally to announce the alliance between the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and the Allied Peoples’ Movement, (APM), Makinde, expressed worry over the dwindling fortunes of Nigerians, vowing to engage Nigerians to end the drift.
Hear him: “Without a multi-party system, there is no democracy. Where is our multi-party? Where do we go from here? We have been pushed to the wall.
“They calculated and self-opposition cannot unite but I am here to say that the opposition is the everyday Nigerian. This is the time for all us to ensure Nigeria works for us. This is the time to confront it fears. It is time to engage as citizens and not spectators.
“For the opposition political parties, this is the time to unite and work in unity and give our nation the much reset it needs. The time to reset Nigeria is now. Ibadan is the city of warriors. The first grand alliance is formed. The PDP and APM is formed. This handshake will allow us to field candidates from presidency to state Assembly. And so, I declare my candidacy for office of the president of Nigeria.”
Eyo Ekpe, a professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH), on Wednesday, gave a detailed account on how operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) manhandled him on Monday.
He told reporters that he was at sea on why he should fall victim to the assault against his person and eventually arrested given that was not right person directly involved in the information the agency sought.
Some operatives of the EFCC who invaded the hospital, had whisked Ekpe away after firing teargas to scare away the workers, patients and visitors to the hospital, following what appeared like a fracas the ensued over what it claimed was a routine duty in the facility.
Ekpe, Deputy Chairman of the hospital’s Medical Advisory Committee (MAC), described how an operative had first entered his office to make inquiries on why the hospital was yet to give a response to an EFCC inquiry over a medical report linked to a suspect facing trial.
He detailed how he briefed the operative that the said response was being prepared and even went ahead to show him the draft of a letter in that regard, which needed to go through the gamut of official endorsement before being released.
Hear him: “The head of that internal medicine department looked at the report and also discovered that the name of the doctor that signed the report is not a member of staff of that department.
“I had prepared prepared a response to the EFCC on Monday, May 11, 2026, based on the findings. When the EFCC operative visited my office the next morning to collect the document, I told him that the response was ready in draft. I even showed him the draft, but told him that the document still needed approval from the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital before it could be officially signed and released.
“He pretended to have accepted that. He left, but later later returned with another armed operative and informed me that I was under arrest. I asked him why. I was not the one that issued the medical report. My name is not on the medical report. The report was not issued from my unit.
“But he said I would get the answer when I get to their office. I then asked him to at least wait for my staff member who I sent on an errand before joining them. But they refused.
“They started pushing me. They dragged me out of the office. Then I began to cry while they were dragging me. They had warned me not to speak. They had taken my phone. My cry as they were dragging me, attracted the workers to the scene, who enquired what was going on, but because they ordered me not to speak, I couldn’t say anything. They had their guns.
The members of staff of the hospital initially blocked them from taking me away. They then made a call. After that I saw many masked and armed men came violently, broke the protector, threatening the people that were around and people ran away.
“They picked some staff that were still by me. they dragged me and other staff, five of us into their van downstairs. By that time they discovered that the gate of the hospital were locked. So, they drove towards the gate and packed and the commotion continued. We were inside the van.
“I was so emotionally and psychologically traumatised that I couldn’t even look out of the vehicle to see what was happening outside. But I know that teargas and live bullets were shot. That’s all I can say for now.”
Joyce Abdulmalik, of the Federal High Court, Abuja, heard on Wednesday, how Zenith Bank raised alarm over the huge transaction in one of its branches by Abubakar Malami, former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF-MoJ).
The bank said it immediately filed a Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) in respect to the transactions, during its appearance in the ongoing trial of Malami, his wife, and son over allegation of massive looting of funds belonging to the Federal Government during his tenure.
Mashelia Bata, a compliance officer with the bank, who appeared as witness in the case, where Malami, et al, are facing a 16-count charge bordering on alleged money laundering to the tune of N8.7 billion, to which they pleaded not guilty, gave the testimony while being questioned on the bank’s roles in the matter.
Details of the testimony conveyed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), stated how the compliance officer who was cross-examined by Adebayo Adedeji, lawyer to the defendants admitted that the deposits in the account statements complied with the guidelines of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Arguments had stretched when Adedeji, opposed Jibrin Okutepa (SAN), lawyer to the EFCC, who had asked the witness to explain the meaning of a suspicious transaction report, stressing that there was no ambiguity in the term.
However, Okutepa, in response, maintained that section 215(3) of the Evidence Act did not preclude him from re-examining the witness while urging the court to allow the question for proper explanation.
After Abdulmalik, agreed and overruled Adedeji, the witness told the court that banks were required to alert the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) about fund deposits coming in a repetitive pattern, adding: “Any deposition of funds seen in a pattern or repetitive, you must escalate it to the NFIU.”
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