Scores of PDP members defect to APC in Ondo

SCORES of members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the oil-producing Ilaje local council of Ondo State last weekend defected to the All Progressive Congress (APC) ostensibly to prepare the ground for the APC take-over of the state in next year’s gubernatorial election.

Led by Prince Glory Okuntade, the defectors said they were leaving PDP, which they described as Egypt because of the mismanagement that they alleged the party has subjected the country to for the past 16 years it had been in the saddle.

Aside Okuntade, other defectors included former political and party office holders including Messrs Timi Olowofoyeku, Dele Asogbon, Ademibo Okuntade, Festus Ademuwagun, Chief Ebini Idowu and Oronla Adebanjo.

Okuntade who spoke on behalf of others said they have nothing to show their teeming supporters in the coastal area as evidences of the development that their membership of PDP had brought to them. Former National Legal Adviser of the PDP and governorship candidate in the 2012 election, Chief Olusola Oke who is now a leader of the APC in the state said the time has come for all Ilaje sons and daughters to dump the PDP which has brought untold hardship to the people in the country.

His words “I am ashamed of being a member of a party that has plunged the country into calamity. With the revelation coming out now, I have to apologise to my teeming supporters and Nigerians that my former party brought Nigeria to her knees. “The change that has taken over Nigeria will come to Ondo State.

This is the time for change in Ondo state. It is not good for this state to be in opposition to the Federal Government. We must be in tandem with the government at the centre.

We want to take over the government both at the state and local government levels.” Also, former Head of Service, Ajose Ikudehinbu said the oil producing communities in the state are marginalised by the PDP-led state government hence the need to dump the party for the progressive camp.

He said, “There is nothing that is in Ilaje that we can be proud of as members of the ruling party in the state. I have to congratulate the defectors for joining APC and I admonished other Ilajes to join hands and rescue the state from the grip of Mimiko who had done a lot of injustices to the people of the constituency.”

Speaking in similar veins, a former commissioner in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Benson Enikuomehin said the structures of PDP in the local government and state are collapsing as its former leaders are leaving for the APC.

Also, former lawmaker, Gbenga Edema said the people are leaving the PDP because the government in the state was shrouded in secrecy as nothing, including the budget is made available to the people including members of the House of Assembly.