Name defectors from Ekiti, PDP challenges APC

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State has denied that its members had defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC), with the party challenging the APC to name the defectors and the offices they occupied in Ayodele Fayose’s government.

A statement by the publicity secretary of the PDP in the state, Mr Jackson Adebayo, claimed that the gathering, where the defection was said to have taken place, was an invitation to former political office holders for a meeting.

Adebayo in the statement, on Wednesday, in reaction to the defection, said: “It is true that the speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Mr Adeniran Alagbada, invited all past political office holders from 2004 till date to a meeting at the state pavilion.”

According to Adebayo, they were invited to the “open place at Fajuyi roundabout for discussion on the arrears they were being owed by the government and how the payment would be made.”

He said, “the meeting, which was attended by politicians across the board, became an avenue to lure members of our party and others to join APC which was rejected vehemently, while the issue of the payment of the arrears was not addressed with any seriousness by the government officials present there.”

Adebayo also claimed that “no PDP member defected to APC or any other party, rather the party has been receiving defectors from APC since the emergence of Abubakar Atiku as the Presidential candidate of the party.”

Also reacting to the development, former Governor Fayose’s media aide, Mr Lere Olayinka, urged the APC and Governor Kayode Fayemi, to face the serious task of governance instead of allowing himself to be duped allegedly by those arranging defections for the APC.

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Olayinka alleged in a statement that supposed PDP defectors without identities were being arranged to dupe Fayemi, saying the position of the said defectors and what the Fayemi government had done to warrant attracting defectors, were questionable.

Olayinka said: “If they are sure of their claim, let them release the names of at least 10 of the so-called defectors and evidence of the positions they held under the government of Fayose. Were they council chairmen, councillors or supervisors? Or do you just report that someone was a political office holder without mentioning the designation?

“It is only when you are desperate to create an impression that you get swindled with this kind of arranged defectors even when your own party people are boiling inside because you have neglected them.

“Rather than preoccupying himself with an arrangement of fake defectors and vendetta, which has made him not to pay the salary of duly elected local government officials and members of statutory commissions in the state, Fayemi should begin to take stock of his close to two months of nothing as governor.”