Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
Aggrieved members of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogun State, have formally announced their defection to the Alliance for Democracy (AD) ahead of 2019 elections.
The defected party members, who were chiefly supporters of Senator Solomon Adeola, listed “politics of exclusion and undemocratic practices,” as their reasons for defecting to AD.
Adeola, otherwise known as Yayi and currently representing Lagos West in the National Assembly, reportedly opted out of the governorship race in Ogun State, on the platform of APC.
Addressing reporters at the Ogun State NUJ Secretariat, Oke Ilewo, Abeokuta, yesterday, the defectors, under the aegis of De-Democrats, further claimed they were schemed out of the APC due to alleged undemocratic practices of Governor Ibikunle Amosun.
Speaking on behalf of the decamped members, Adekunle Adesina said various attempts to get justice did not receive favourable response from the national leadership of the party.
Adesina, who is the immediate past Ogun Central Senatorial chairman of APC, further said with over 40,000 members, spread across the 236 wards, the group also has members in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) who supported Adeola’s ambition.
“It is important to state at this point in time that Adeola, popularly known as Yayi, has decided to excuse himself from the governorship race in order to avoid engineering any crisis in the Ogun State APC.
“However, we members of De-Democrats are determined to continue our agitation for internal party democracy and majority rule in the politics of Ogun State. One of such undemocratic practices of the governor is the unilateral removal of seven party chairmen, who were duly elected at the 2014 party congress.”