{"id":194947,"date":"2026-02-14T23:45:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T22:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/ex-minister-idi-hong-formally-defects-to-apc"},"modified":"2026-02-15T01:00:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T00:00:39","slug":"ex-minister-idi-hong-formally-defects-to-apc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/ex-minister-idi-hong-formally-defects-to-apc","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Minister Idi Hong formally defects to APC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Former Minister of State for Health and later Foreign Affairs, Dr Aliyu Idi Hong, has officially defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).<\/p>\n<p>The formal defection took place on Saturday evening at his home ward in Hong Local Government Area of Adamawa State, where he said it had become inevitable to leave the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in view of prevailing issues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were in a sinking ship,\u201d Idi Hong asserted, stressing that a mass defection from the PDP in Adamawa State is imminent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will be committing suicide to remain in PDP,\u201d he added, claiming that moves are under way to encourage PDP officials and other notable figures currently in the party across the 226 wards of the state to leave and join the APC.<\/p>\n<p>Idi Hong made the remarks amid growing speculation that the state governor, Ahmadu Fintiri, may defect to the APC in the near future.<\/p>\n<p>Fintiri, who has maintained a firm grip on the PDP since assuming office as governor under its platform in 2019, would be expected to leave the party with a significant number of members.<\/p>\n<p>The APC chairman in Adamawa State, Idris Shuaibu, welcomed the new entrant and urged him to bring his goodwill to bear on the APC family.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Former Minister of State for Health and later Foreign Affairs, Dr Aliyu Idi Hong, has officially defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC). The formal defection took place on Saturday evening at his home ward in Hong Local Government Area of Adamawa State, where he said it had become inevitable to leave [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":194946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,16],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-194947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-parties","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ex-Minister Idi Hong formally defects to APC - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Minister of State for Health and later Foreign Affairs, Dr Aliyu Idi Hong, has officially defected to the All Pro ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/ex-minister-idi-hong-formally-defects-to-apc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ex-Minister Idi Hong formally defects to APC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Minister of State for Health and later Foreign Affairs, Dr Aliyu Idi Hong, has officially defected to the All Pro ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/ex-minister-idi-hong-formally-defects-to-apc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-14T22:45:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-15T00:00:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/sm_1771113585.67941.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"874\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/ex-minister-idi-hong-formally-defects-to-apc#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/ex-minister-idi-hong-formally-defects-to-apc\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Ex-Minister Idi Hong formally defects to APC\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-14T22:45:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-15T00:00:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/ex-minister-idi-hong-formally-defects-to-apc\"},\"wordCount\":224,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/ex-minister-idi-hong-formally-defects-to-apc#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/sm_1771113585.67941.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Parties\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/ex-minister-idi-hong-formally-defects-to-apc#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/ex-minister-idi-hong-formally-defects-to-apc\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/parties\/ex-minister-idi-hong-formally-defects-to-apc\",\"name\":\"Ex-Minister Idi Hong formally defects to APC - 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