The official defection of the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Blessing Agbebaku, from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), with both parties exchanging statements over the development.
The Edo State PDP, through its Caretaker Chairman, Tony Aziegbemi, described the APC’s celebration of Agbebaku’s defection as “comical and misleading,” alleging that the Speaker had long operated as a covert APC loyalist. “Tuesday’s stage-managed fanfare in Benin City was not news; it was merely the official coronation of what had become a public secret,” Aziegbemi said while addressing journalists.
He accused Agbebaku of partisan bias, particularly in the suspension of elected PDP local government chairmen, which he said was done in alliance with the APC gubernatorial candidate, Senator Monday Okpebholo. “Despite the expiration of that unconstitutional suspension, Agbebaku refused to reinstate them, acting with clear partisan bias,” Aziegbemi said.
He further described Agbebaku’s move as “a textbook case of political opportunism—motivated not by ideology or conviction, but by personal ambition.” The PDP also challenged the APC to provide names of the 17 council chairmen it claimed had defected, alleging that only political appointees had switched allegiance.
In a response the APC, through its State Publicity Secretary, Barr. Peter Uwadiae Igbinigie, dismissed Aziegbemi’s remarks as “the whimper of a sinking ship gasping for relevance.”
“The PDP now claims that Agbebaku has long operated as a covert APC loyalist. If that were true, they should have expelled him long ago,” Igbinigie retorted. “Agbebaku’s defection represents the complete collapse of the PDP’s credibility and leadership in Edo State.”
The APC also dismissed PDP’s claims about the suspended council chairmen, accusing the Obaseki-led PDP government of imposing handpicked loyalists through unconstitutional caretaker appointments. “Their so-called ‘elected chairmen’ were handpicked cronies foisted on the people without proper elections,” Igbinigie said.
Responding to PDP’s insistence that no duly elected chairman defected, Igbinigie promised that the APC would “release the names and images of the defectors in due course.”
The APC said the growing wave of defections from the PDP was a reflection of the people’s rejection of a “party held hostage by a few self-serving elites.” Igbinigie condemned Aziegbemi’s reference to a “holocaust period” as “irresponsible and dangerous,” adding that Edo State is not in crisis but experiencing “a season of political liberation.”
