PDP lawmaker defects to APC

A former Chief Whip in the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Sunday Akinniyi, yesterday defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Akinniyi said he took the decision due to intractable crisis in the PDP, which had forced some members to join other parties.

Besides, he said his constituents mandated him to resign, following the unending crises caused by alleged high-handedness of Governor Ayodele Fayose, who runs the party as a sole administrator.

Akinniyi, who addressed journalists at the campaign office of Dr. Kayode Fayemi, added alleged shabby treatment of a monarch.

According to him, Fayose relegated the Olukere of Ikere, Oba Ganiyu Obasoyin in a supremacy battle with the Ogoga of Ikere Ekiti, Oba Adejimi Adu.

He accused the governor of neglecting his constituents in major projects executed in Ikere Ekiti, including reneging on his promise to give the Olukere a staff of office.

He explained: “Governor Fayose had asked me to bring the Olukere to him, and asked the council of traditional rulers to visit the
Olukere’s palace and make recommendations on how best the state could recognise his stool.

“The monarchs submitted their report to Fayose, but he never acted on it. Rather, they set him up for murder and put him in detention.

He said the governor’s action made him not to support the PDP’s governorship candidate, Prof. Kolapo Olusola.

Akinniyi said all the projects Fayose executed in Ikere, including the dualisation were concentrated in constituency I.

He said: “I raised issues about it, and because of that, I was removed as the Chief Whip, instead of the allegation of docility and sleeping at plenary, which they leveled against me.”

He claimed that he had severally been humiliated and threatened on the floor of the House by Fayose’s agents because he spoke on matters that bordered on the welfare of his people.