The Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Martin Chike Amaewhule, announced on Friday that he and 16 other members of the House had left the Peoples Democratic Party and joined the All Progressives Congress in a move that will instantly reshape the arithmetic of state politics.
Amaewhule declared during plenary that the decision was driven by a deepening division in the PDP. He expressed a desire to align with the federal government under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He praised him for security efforts and for showing attention to Rivers State.
The Speaker said he had written to his ward chairman to formalise the switch. He expected to be issued an APC membership card in short order.
The defectors include senior officers of the House. Reports name the Deputy Speaker Dumle Maol and House Leader Major Jack. Linda Stewart and Franklin Nwabochi are also named. Other names in the reports include Azeru Opara, Smart Adoki, Enemi George, and Solomon Wami, among others.
The move leaves the APC with 17 members in the Assembly. The remaining PDP lawmakers have appointed Sylvanus Nwankwo as Minority Leader. The roll call of who left and who remains will be decisive in any future votes. It will also determine control of committees.
This is not an isolated eruption. Rivers has been the PDP stronghold since 1999. However, it has been fractured by a protracted and often ugly crisis. This crisis pits factions aligned to different national figures. The impasse reached such a pitch in March. President Tinubu declared a state of emergency. He suspended the governor and the Assembly and appointed a sole administrator.
Emergency rule lasted six months and was lifted in September when the president reinstated the elected officials. Those extraordinary federal interventions have not healed local fractures.
The timing and tenor of the defections invite a sceptical reading. On the face of it the lawmakers cite intra-party division. In practice the move looks like political hedging and survival. Joining the ruling party can secure access to federal patronage. It can ease the friction that followed the emergency rule. It can also reduce personal exposure to investigations or administrative pressure.
For a legislature in a petrostate such as Rivers the calculus is stark. Control of local offices and budgets translates quickly into control of contracts and appointments. The shift therefore matters not only for party labels but for who benefits from the state’s oil wealth.
Legal and constitutional questions remain. Past defections by Rivers lawmakers triggered court challenges. Allegations surfaced that seats had been vacated when members abandoned the party on which they were elected.
The courts have been a theatre of this struggle. The question will be litigated again if opponents choose to press it. This question concerns whether mass defections amount to a legitimate expression of conscience or an evasion of voters’ mandate.
Meanwhile the practical effect is immediate. The governor now faces a recalibrated legislature and a new set of coalition dynamics.
For Rivers people the change will be judged by what follows. If the defections produce better governance, a healed relationship with the centre and improved security they may be accepted.
If they deepen impunity and unlock patronage without accountability, the result will be another chapter. It will be part of the long saga of regional capture and brittle democracy.
Either way, this mass migration from PDP to APC is a pivotal event. It will define Rivers politics for the rest of this term.
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