Support group warns Yilwatda against jeopardising Tinubu’s 2027 chances
All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders in Plateau State at the weekend rejected any speculation or potential move by Governor Caleb Mutfwang to join their party from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Mutfwang, a prominent PDP figure, has repeatedly dismissed defection speculations, reaffirming his loyalty to the party until the next general elections.
However, with two of his colleagues, Enugu State Governor Peter Mbah and his Bayelsa counterpart, Douye Diri, resigning from the PDP last week to join the APC, and reports suggesting that Taraba State Governor Agbu Kefas may follow, speculations have intensified that Mutfwang and other PDP governors in the North may also dump the party for the ruling APC.
The stakeholders’ meeting was attended by APC National Chairman, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, former Governor and party leader in the state, Senator Simon Bako Lalong, erstwhile Deputy Speaker Idris Wase, former Governor Joshua Dariye, former Minister Dame Pauline Tallen, Managing Director/CEO of the North Central Development Commission, Dr Cyril Yiltsen Tsenyil, serving and former lawmakers, and hundreds of faithful.
Announcing the resolution, Yilwatda, who contested the 2023 governorship election against Mutfwang, called on a former Deputy National Secretary of the APC, Festus Fuanter, to move a motion on the issue.
However, the Director of Press and Public Affairs to Governor Mutfwang, Gyang Bere, has denied any plan by his principal to join the APC, stressing that he has the capacity to win the 2027 election without switching parties.
Reacting, a support group within the ruling party, Renewed Hope Advocates of Nigeria (RHAN), has accused Yilwatda of allowing his “personal hatred for Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State to endanger President Bola Tinubu’s 2027 re-election prospects.”
In a statement by its National Coordinator, Prince Miaphen, the group expressed “deep concern” that while the President and the APC national leadership were busy reaching out to opposition governors across the federation, Nentawe has instead been working to frustrate Governor Mutfwang’s planned defection to the APC.
Miaphen decried the outcome of the stakeholders’ meeting, describing the decision as “reckless, self-serving, and politically suicidal.”
He stated: “At a stakeholders’ meeting recently held in Jos — presided over by the National Chairman himself — a motion was not only moved but unanimously adopted to bar the incumbent Governor of Plateau State, Caleb Mutfwang, from joining the APC.
The same meeting that enthusiastically endorsed President Tinubu’s second term bid paradoxically decided to block a sitting governor who could have been one of his strongest electoral assets in the North Central region.”
According to him, the decision “exposes the growing disconnect between the Plateau APC leadership and the President’s national vision, warning that “any political strategy that alienates Plateau’s sitting governor is both short-sighted and dangerous to the party’s national interest.”
Miaphen noted that under Tinubu, Nigeria has witnessed unprecedented political inclusivity, citing the alignment of governors from Cross River, Ebonyi, Zamfara, and Enugu states as examples of the President’s bridge-building strategy.
He described Nentawe’s actions as a “dangerous contradiction” that calls into question his political maturity and loyalty to the President’s Renewed Hope Agenda.”
Rhan also reminded the President of the bitter lessons of 2023, when the APC lost Plateau despite having former Governor Simon Lalong as the Director-General of Tinubu’s campaign.
