• Governor’s 26 loyalists quit ruling party
Sharon Emi
Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, has restated that he would continue to pursue his political aspiration on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), to ensure the re-election of President Mohammadu Buhari.
This is coming as no fewer than 26 loyalists of Amosun, yesterday announced their defection from the APC to the Allied People’s Movement (APM).
Amosun was speaking to party faithful, at the Presidential Lodge, Ibara, Abeokuta, yesterday, just as his loyalists, including 26 candidates, who emerged victorious as candidates at the October 2 primaries, to the state House of Assembly seats, announced their movement to the Allied People’s Movement (APM).
Ogun State Governorship candidate of the APC, Hon. Adekunle Akinlade, was also announced to have defected to the APM, by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara last week.
The governor, at the gathering, said his decision to remain in APC, was borne out of his unwavering support for President Muhammadu Buhari as well as to protect the rights of those who were robbed of their mandate by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC.
According to him, the people of the state are solidly in support of the president and will vote massively for him in the 2019 Presidential poll, stating however that, his support for the president was not a support for an illegality.
He said he was however unable to stop those who felt aggrieved by the injustice metted on them by the national leadership of the party, to seek their aspiration on other platforms.
Amosun restated that his support is for Akinlade and no other governorship candidate, who according to him, is in pocession of a stolen mandate.
Meanwhile, no fewer than 26 loyalists of Amosun, yesterday announced their defection from the APC to the Allied People’s Movement (APM).
The defectors were the aggrieved members of the APC who claimed to have won the legislative primaries of the APC conducted by the state election committee, appointed by the National Working Committee held October 8, 2018, in the state.
Addressing journalists on behalf of other members, the spokesperson of the group, Lamidi Olatunji, said they were declared winners by the committee Chairman, Col. Ali Ciroma (rtd), but were refused the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) forms for the nomination of the party as candidates for the election till it closed December 2.
Olatunji in his speech titled, ‘Why we are leaving APC for APM’, said “after extensive and due consultations with our elders, members and stakeholders in the APC in Ogun State, we have come to the inevitable conclusion to seek the general mandate of our people in the 2019 elections on the platform of APM.
“We wish to state that this is without prejudice to the progressive ideals which have endeared our candidature and our political group to the good people of Ogun State.”
