Senate President Godswill Akpabio has disclosed the list of PDP governors who will be joining the APC soon as he mentioned his plan for the South-South Senate President Godswill Akpabio has made a bold announcement at a high-profile rally in Uyo, signaling a tectonic shift in Nigeria’s South‑South political landscape. Speaking at Governor Umo Eno’s induction into the APC on June 21, 2025, Akpabio declared that the governors of both Rivers State (Siminalayi Fubara) and Bayelsa State (Douye Diri) are poised to defect from the PDP to the APC. He framed this move not merely as defections, but as part of a larger unifying strategy to bring the entire South‑South region into the ruling party fold .
Akpabio underscored the momentum already underway: with Governors Eno and Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta having switched allegiance recently, the APC now holds sway in four of the region’s six states. He confidently projected that Rivers would “tumble” next, followed by Bayelsa interpreting this as a potential sweep ahead of the 2027 elections . This sequence of defections, according to him, would set the South‑South on a unified path voting overwhelmingly for President Tinubu in 2027, and further entrenching APC’s dominance.
Critics of the PDP have attributed these mass departures to lingering internal strife within the party, and Akpabio echoed this, citing Umo Eno’s defection as a response to the PDP’s chronic instability . His strategic vision aims beyond mere political victories: by consolidating power across South‑South states, the APC intends to reshape regional political dynamics, projecting an image of unity and progress under the Tinubu administration. Whether Rivers and Bayelsa will follow reflects not just individual decisions, but a broader question will the South‑South realign, or resist, as Nigeria heads into the next electoral cycle?
