By SAKA Laaro, Ilorin
More than seven hundred members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) across wards in the Irepodun local government area of Kwara state at the weekend defected to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Welcoming the decampees at a ceremony organized by a former member of the Federal House of Representatives, Hon. Gbenga Makanjuola and the PDP in Omu Aran, Makanjuola said that it is in the PDP that their welfare would be taken care of and their expectations met.
Hon. Makanjuola, who was a former deputy Chief of staff to the former Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, expressed a sincere gratitude to the decampees for finding PDP worthy.
He said that the decampees are “political grassrooters” who had come to the PDP after several private meetings with them.
He also said that they had joined the PDP due to lack of trust and integrity in the leadership of their former parties, “coupled with continuous internal crisis rocking their former parties while the interest of the party members are not considered.”
Also speaking, one of the group leaders of the decamping groups, Queen Ogbufo, said that, “Our former parties are a sham. They lied to us to have our support back then and now they don’t care about our interest anymore. PDP recognized us and called us to a meeting through the ‘Efura Elders Consultation Forum.’ We have decamped to PDP today to show them our strength and to help bring back good governance to our people. Many of us here and some others who are not here today are ready to work in unity and get PDP back into power,” she said.
She also said that the group has one of the strongest APC grassroots mobilizing groups of Alhaji Lai Mohammed in Omu Aran and many others from ADC in Irepodun local government.
While addressing the decamping members who came in their various group across Irepodun local government, the Chairman of PDP in the Ifelodun local government, Hon. Saheed Oyelowo, said that, “Some people lied so much about our party in the last election to turn the masses against us, but now masses have realized that we are the one who truly have the best to offer them.
“These sets of decampees and many others that are still coming have been able to differentiate between us and the other party who don’t have things to offer. We are happy to have them and we are promising to return power to them when we come back in 2023 in Kwara state.”