2 Deputy governors who dumped their governors’ party to join rival party but were not impeached

It made headlines that the Deputy Governor of Zamfara State, Mahdi Aliyu Gusau was impeached days ago by the state lawmakers after months of delay and horse-trading.

His impeachment was given political interpretations. While some said that he committed impeachable offenses, others argued that he was impeached because he refused to defect from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC with Governor Bello Matawalle. Those who put this second argument forward then suggested that Gusau’s impeachment was political to get him out and have Matawalle’s loyalist as the Deputy Governor.

This article will discuss two Deputy Governors that dumped the political parties that their Governors belong to and joined rival parties but were not impeached. Although, there were attempts to impeach one of them but it failed and he served out his tenure.

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(1). Agboola Ajayi: Ajayi was the Deputy Governor of Ondo State. He and Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu were elected under the ruling APC in 2016. After a few years, he started having issues with his Boss. The matter took another twist in the run up to 2020 governorship election in Ondo when Ajayi wanted to contest against his Governor.

Ajayi then dumped the APC and joined the opposition PDP. There were attempts to impeach him but his loyalists in the Ondo House of Assembly opposed it. Ajayi later joined the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) to contest against Akeredolu in the main election where he lost. He eventually completed his tenure as Deputy Governor.

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(2). Dr Nkem Okeke: Okeke dumped the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to join the APC. His defection took place few weeks to the Anambra State governorship election in November 2021. Although, Governor Wilie Obiano and Okeke are serving out their second term and not contesting the election, but Okeke’s action was given political interpretations.

Some critics said that his move was to make APGA lose the election so that APC would win but Prof Charles Soludo later won the election for APGA. However, Okeke still remains in APC and his tenure with Obiano will end in May this year. He was not impeached. There may be few other instances but this article discussed only the two above.