Umar Damagun, the acting national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says the party’s national legal adviser has been directed to take legal action over the defection of Sheriff Oborevwori, governor of Delta, and other members to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Damagun addressed journalists in Abuja on Tuesday at the end of the party’s national working committee (NWC) meeting.

On Monday, Ifeanyi Okowa, former governor of Delta, and Oborevwori, his successor, alongside some stakeholders of the PDP in the state, formally defected to the APC.

Damagun said the party has decided to dissolve all the structures in Delta since the majority of the leaders have joined the APC.

The acting national chairman said the south-south zonal caretaker committee should oversee the affairs of Delta PDP pending the inauguration of an interim leadership.

“We also instructed the national legal adviser to recover our mandate that they have taken away,” he said.

“The fortune of this party cannot be left in the hands of our adversaries, so we will take legal action to retrieve those mandates.

“I want to use this opportunity to tell Nigerians that elections cannot be done by leaders but by people. I believe this (defection) should not weigh us down.”

Damagun urged PDP members to remain calm, adding that the 2027 presidential election is between Nigerians and the APC.