By Olufemi Oni, Ilorin
Thousands of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) members in Kwara state at the weekend defected to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The defectors, who were led by one Kayode Ogunlowo, hinged their action on alleged victimisation and intimidation by Governor AbdulRaman AbdulRazaq’s APC led Administration.
Former Senate President Bukola Saraki and PDP executive members in the state received the defectors in Ilorin, the state capital.
Adducing reasons for their defection to PDP, Kayode Ogunlowo said that the APC he alongside others laboured hard to enthrone in 2019 has been antagonistic to them.
He said: “The APC we worked hard for in 2019 has not been able to reciprocate our good gesture. Instead, the party, led by Governor AbdulRaman AbdulRazaq, decided to victimise us. The governor decided to haul abuses on us. He decided to charge us to court and detained us in prison custody.
“As I am talking to you, majority of our members were disenfranchised during the voters registration and revalidation exercise.
“That is why we decided to leave APC for PDP. The Egypt of yesterday is better than Sudan of today. The current government has no concrete achievements to point to. Instead, it keeps up piling up debts without commensurate physical development.
“Thank God, it is not too late. This is the time to join hands together and push out Governor AbdulRazaq from the Government House in 2023. Today, we are burning the brooms that symbolise poverty, insecurity and maladministration.”
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in his remarks, Senator Saraki expressed confidence that PDP would trounce APC at the 2023 governorship election, basing his optimism on what he described as the “awful performance of the AbdulRazaq administration in the last three years”.
According to Saraki, “the 2019 otoge movement was a propaganda and tissues of lies used to deceive the peopleand send us packing.
“But the people have learnt their lessons in a bitter way now. I am confident that PDP will send APC away from the Government House in 2023 by the grace of God. The love of Kwara informed this defection to the PDP today and we will all work together for the betterment of the state.
PDP Chairman in the state Hon Babatunde Mohammed, aligned with his leader, also confident
that PDP is coming back stronger in 2023. “We are going to win the president seat, all the National Assembly seats in the state and all the 24 seats at the state House of Assembly,” he enthused.
He assured the defectors of a level playing ground in all the party’s activities in the state, addibg that “the residents of the state both indigenes and non indigenes are now regretting that they mistakenly voted for the current government in 2019.”
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