From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State has mocked Governor Ademola Adeleke and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the planned defection of Dotun Babayemi and Akin Ogunbiyi to the APC.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, APC State Chairman Tajudeen Lawal, through the party’s Director of Media and Information, Kola Olabisi, said the PDP’s recent meeting with the defectors was an act of desperation after years of neglecting them.
“Investigations across the state have shown that the state PDP leadership has not been at ease since the resolve of Ogunbiyi and Babayemi to defect to the APC with their supporters,” Lawal stated.
He attributed the PDP’s woes to Governor Adeleke’s greed and mismanagement, claiming that the defections were a result of the governor’s failure to fulfil his promises and respect the party’s leaders.
“No matter the meeting Governor Adeleke held with the hitherto neglected Osun state PDP leaders, whether it’s under reconciliation or harmonization of the leaders, it wouldn’t achieve any desired result as the governor has proved, through his misconduct after the Supreme Court declared him the winner of the governorship election, that he is neither a gentleman nor a promise keeper,” Lawal said.
He further criticized Adeleke for taking 17 months to acknowledge the contributions of party leaders and accused him of being blinded by the euphoria of office and greed.
“It is late in the day for Adeleke to be contemplating holding any reconciliation and harmonization meeting(s) of the glaringly robbed and shortchanged disenchanted leaders of the state PDP as there is nothing to show that it will be done with utmost good faith,” Lawal stated.
The APC chairman expressed confidence that the PDP would be defeated in the 2026 elections, regardless of any attempts to appease disgruntled leaders.
“Let’s make it abundantly clear to Governor Adeleke that even if he appoints all the people of Osun State his political functionaries, such executive recklessness would not, in any way, confer any special advantage on him as the PDP government would be sent packing in the state through democratic means by the way of the forthcoming 2026 elections in the state,” Lawal concluded.