26 House of Assembly candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogun State, have defected to the Allied People’s Movement (APM), on Monday.
The defectors include two serving commissioners, Mr Dayo Adeneye (Information and Strategy) and Mrs Modupe Mujota (Education, Science and Technology) who were candidates of the Assembly for Odogbolu and Abeokuta South 1.
They claimed that the National leadership of the party stole the mandate freely given to them during the October 7 legislative primary conducted by the national body of the party.
Addressing newsmen at the MTR Hall, Ibara, on behalf of other candidates, Lamidi Olatunji, said the move became necessary since all effort to get the decision of the NWC reversed proved otherwise.
Olatunji said they had to leave the party to APM so as to actualise their ambitions, submitting that all efforts by President Muhammadu Buhari to resolve issues surrounding the conduct of the primary were frustrated.
TribuneOnline recalls that Governor Ibikunle Amosun anointed governorship candidate, Honourable Adekunle Akinlade left APC for APM last Thursday, when he announced his defection on the floor of the House of Representatives.
Similarly, four lawmakers of the State House of Assembly equally defected from APC to APM same day.
The candidates, however, pledged their support for the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said: “We also wish to acknowledge the fatherly role of President Muhammadu Buhari in seeking to sustain the tenets of democracy fairness and equity in the resolution of the crisis in Ogun APC.
“We regret that Mr President’s efforts were frustrated by the forces that are hellbent in taking the Southwest back to the dark age of slavery where unelected kingpins direct the affairs of the people.”
Olatunji described their new party as “the new vehicle for the development of Ogun State” and directed their supporters to join the party. (Nigerian Tribune)