The third democratically elected governor of Abia State, Theodore Orji, has officially defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), ending long‑standing speculation about his political future.
Orji, who represented Abia Central Senatorial District in the Senate from 2015 to 2023, had announced his retirement from active politics months earlier but did not, at the time, formally renounce his membership of the PDP.
The Nation recalls that Orji’s son, Rt. Hon. Chinedum Enyinnaya Orji, a former Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, had earlier defected from the PDP to the APC amid an internal crisis within the party, once touted as the largest political party in Africa.
As widely speculated, the former Abia Central senator, who has kept a relatively low public profile since retiring from the Senate, has now formally joined the APC.
The defection of Senator Orji, a pivotal figure and influential voice in Abia politics, has further weakened the PDP’s standing in the state. He was regarded as one of the party’s major rallying points and financiers in the region.
Confirming the development, Orji’s media aide, Mr Ifeanyi Umere, told The Nation that the move was a personal decision, adding that no official reason was provided for the defection.