The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has reacted to the defection of Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke and Rivers State Governor Similanayi Fubara to the Accord Party and All Progressives Congress (APC) respectively, admitting that unresolved internal issues contributed to Adeleke’s ouster.
Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief, PDP National Publicity Secretary Ini Ememobong said the party failed to address the leadership challenges that ultimately drove Adeleke away.
He said: “Adeleke is a victim of circumstances, and those circumstances were created by human failings within the party. Every problem has a human cause and therefore should also have a human solution, but decisive action was not taken early enough. If the leadership had acted firmly from 2023, when the decline began, the result could have been different.”
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Ememobong added that the party’s belief that the situation would resolve itself only worsened tensions.
“Sometimes leaders believe that once passions calm down, people will reconsider their positions. But that did not happen here, and by the time the convention took decisive action in Ibadan, things had already gone too far. This is how it became a victim of indirect responsibilities that it could not fully let go of,” he said.
He dismissed comparisons between Adeleke’s case and that of Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara, saying the two situations were different.
“We are not making excuses for anyone. Both situations are circumstantial, and even the victims had a role to play in the conflicts that devastated them. But in Fubara’s case, he voluntarily became the party’s candidate, and those who supported him have repeatedly spoken about the agreements reached. To this day, he has not told anyone what the agreement was.
“We deeply sympathize with Fubara, because he is a calm and kind person who has his back against the wall. But we disapprove of the attempt to place blame on him after he personally told Nigerians that it was a ‘father-son matter’. This is the classic Stockholm syndrome, where the captive falls in love with the captor and this leads to conscious amnesia about who should take the real blame.”
As for Rivers’ legal battle, he also criticized the Supreme Court’s delays.
“When you fight for a person, they should feel like you are fighting for them. But throughout that period, the governor discouraged people from fighting, insisting that he would ‘figure it out.’ You can’t cry more than the grieving. No one can give an injection to a patient who insists that the injection will kill him.”
He said senior lawyers had complained that the Supreme Court had simply not set a date for the hearing.
Despite internal crises, Ememobong rejected claims that the PDP had collapsed.
“A political party is a hotbed of conflict because it is a potpourri of heterogeneous struggles for power. To say that the PDP has failed would mean that there was an examination and a scoring, and that is not the case. Even the ruling party faces its own internal battles despite having a president,” he said.
He added that the party is engaging its governors for 2027, but will not beg anyone to stay.
Newslodge