• Pledges loyalty to Aiyedatiwa, Tinubu

A former Deputy Governor in Ondo State, Agboola Ajayi, and governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the 2024 gubernatorial election in the state, has dumped the opposition party for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

While describing his decision to rejoin the APC, Ajayi disclosed that the move was driven by the need to add value to the party and to support the re-election bid of President Bola Tinubu.

Ajayi, who spoke in Igbekebo, Ese-Odo Local Government Area of the state, said the exercise formally affirmed his membership of the APC and would enable him to participate fully in the party’s activities.

The former federal lawmaker had, in June 2020, formally resigned his membership of the APC and defected to the PDP, citing irreconcilable differences between him and his erstwhile boss, the late former Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, whom he had served with as deputy.

Meanwhile, Ajayi noted that rejoining the APC along with his loyalists would, in no small measure, strengthen his support for the administration of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa as well as the Renewed Hope Agenda of Tinubu.

“I decided to join the APC; you recall that I was a member of the APC before. I became a deputy governor there. At the time, there could have been a misunderstanding, and I left, but I’m back fully now.

“I and the governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, have talked; we have abused ourselves, but we did not really go into that abuse. We campaigned; at the time of the campaign, you cannot rule out blackmail and propaganda. But we look at it as, yes, those things are bigger than all of us.

“And this is about the Nigeria project. We should come together to see how we can add value to the system. And particularly, I want to also commend Mr President for the bold steps and the reforms that he has introduced to the country.

“He’s been able to establish and lay a solid foundation. No president will come and say he wants to cancel those policies again. Anybody that comes in the future, after President Tinubu, will not, and cannot even say he wants to remove all these policies that give the government a very formidable economy and a vibrant background,” Ajayi stated.

The Chairman of the APC in the state, Ade Adetimehin, who described the former deputy governor as a grassroots politician, stated that “he’s a man that knows the nooks and crannies of Ondo State. When it comes to politics, he is a bulldozer.”

“Having him back in the APC, our party is solid; we are one united family. I and him, we did a lot to install our late governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu. Now, those that have governed the state in the past, all of them are now in the APC.”

On his part, the Special Adviser to Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa on Legislative and Party Affairs, Babatunde Kolawole, maintained that Ajayi is a big value addition to the ruling party.