Osita Okechukwu slams Tambuwal over defection comments

A founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Osita Okechukwu, has criticized Senator Aminu Tambuwal over his recent remarks regarding defections from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC.

Tambuwal, a former governor of Sokoto State, had expressed disappointment during the North West Zonal meeting of the PDP, saying, “I believe that no one with conscience will join the APC. People leave parties for different reasons, but what I have been observing in recent times are defections not based on the interest of the people but on stomach infrastructure.”

Responding to Tambuwal’s statement, Okechukwu accused him of contributing to the PDP’s downfall. “Tambuwal cannot truly talk of conscience when he connived to wreck the PDP. The trust deficit in the party’s leadership is driving defectors,” he said.

Okechukwu attributed the defections to the PDP’s breach of its presidential rotation convention, a violation he claimed Tambuwal masterminded. He pointed to the fallout between Tambuwal and Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, as evidence of the PDP’s internal divisions. Wike had backed Tambuwal during the PDP’s 2018 presidential primary.

“This is the offshoot of the Wike masquerade raging,” Okechukwu said, adding that the PDP is now “demobilized, irretrievably wrecked, and ineffective” as the main opposition party.

When asked about a potential coalition or merger aimed at unseating the APC in the 2027 presidential election, Okechukwu dismissed the idea. “The greed in the PDP will not allow them to forge a solid merger,” he stated, criticizing the party’s alleged plans to further disrupt the rotation convention by proposing awkward power-sharing permutations.

He also accused Tambuwal and his allies of assuming they have full control of northern votes.

“The northern electorate is one of the most sophisticated in the country and cannot be toyed with,” he said, adding that the southeast electorate also has not forgotten past PDP decisions that sidelined them.

Okechukwu concluded by reiterating that the defections were not about personal gain but rather a reflection of the PDP’s leadership failures.

“The issue is not stomach infrastructure; it’s the PDP’s leadership trust deficit,” he said.