From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State has described as untrue, claims by Governor Ademola Adeleke that he did not attempt to leave People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for the APC.
The APC disclosed that the condition given to Adeleke by its leadership at the national level was that he would have to queue up and that he could not be given an automatic ticket for the governorship election under the APC.
The Director of Media and Information of the APC in Osun, Kola Olabisi, in a statement on Saturday, insisted that Adeleke lied to the PDP stakeholders that he was not planning to leave the PDP either now or in the nearest future.
Adeleke at the stakeholder meeting was quoted to have said that the rumours about his imminent defection into the APC was a “fake news emanating from those intimidated by our extra-ordinary performance in state leadership.”
But the APC expressed surprise that Adeleke could not be truthful by confessing to the state PDP stakeholders comprising former state Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Dr Olu Alabi, Professor Wale Oladipo, Hon Akanni Olohunwa, Mr Sunday Bisi, Rt. Hon. Adewale Egbedun, Rt. Hon Lasun Yusuf among others that his desperate attempts to defect into the opposition APC were unsuccessful.
“Many people were not privy to how some governors in the Southwest geo-political zone and some notable millionaire industrialists were using the dead of the night to package Governor Adeleke for the failed defection exercise, his begging visit to Chief Bisi Akande in his Ibadan, Oyo State residence, is still fresh in the memory of the right-thinking members of the society.
“We wonder why Governor Adeleke failed to reveal to the PDP stakeholders that the condition given to him by the leadership of the ruling party at the national level was that he would have to queue up and that he could not be given an automatic ticket for the governorship election under the APC.
“If Governor Adeleke is cocksure that he is popular, why touting the option of defecting into the APC to fly the governorship flag of the party? Could it be the desolate state of his so-called ruling party that was responsible for his initial plan to defect into the APC?
“It is those viewing the PDP-produced governor from outside the state that are ascribing the attribute of popularity to him when in actual fact, his party witnesses defection of its members into the leading opposition party almost on daily basis.
“It is a misnomer for Governor Adeleke to have an exaggerated notion of his political popularity, influence and acceptability when his shortcomings are constantly showing a red sign having served the state within the limit of his unenviable capacity for three years running which has proved to be a monumental disaster to the overall development of the state.
“We congratulate the forward-looking members and supporters of our party that God Almighty was magnanimous enough to have divinely blocked the aspired defection of Governor Adeleke into our party which could have caused untold friction, lack of cohesion, disunity and schisms of an unimaginable dimension.
“We, as a party, are cautioning Governor Adeleke to retract the lies told the innocent stakeholders of the Osun State chapter of the PDP or risks being exposed to the public domain a comprehensive information on his copious failed attempts to defect into our party,” APC said.