Barely 22 days to the conduct of September governorship poll in Osun, the ranks and file of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) got more depleted on Saturday as four lawmakers from the State House of Assembly defected to the Action Democratic Party (ADP) and African Democratic Congress (ADC).
With the latest defection, no fewer that 17 stalwarts of the party and appointees of Governor Rauf Aregbesola have dumped the APC for the opposition parties.
The list of three lawmakers of the Osun State legislature, that defected to the ADP include Hon Debo Akanbi Kamarudeen ( North State Constituency), Hon Tajudeen Famuyide (Ilesa West State Constituency) and Hon Abdulahi Ibrahim (Iwo State Constituency), while Hon Laolu Oyeniran, who represents Odo Otin State Constituency decamped to African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Speaking in Osogbo while dumping the ruling party for the ADP, Hon Debo Akanbi Kamarudeen, who spoke in Yoruba language said “we know the history of APC in Osun State. In Ede North and South, we know those of us that founded the APC. I have been to my people and I told them that I cannot leave Adeoti. We have honoured our agreement to support Aregbesola for eight years. This is a movement. Adeoti is the next governor. It is the turn of Osun West. They know that there is nobody left in the APC”.
Addressing the crowd of ADP supporters that converged on the venue, Hon Tajudeen Famuyide of Ilesa West State Constituency said “any political party that plays with the peoples’ emotions will die. We are not decamping, we are moving forward. We were members of the AD and we move to AC, which changed to ACN and later APC. We are the real progressives. The people on the other side are reactionary.”
Hon Abdulahi Ibrahim, who represents Iwo State Constituency maintained that “we are not fighting for Adeoti or Professor Durotoye. We are fighting for our rights. If we want to reject cheating, we must take action. Let us go to where we supposed to go show the people the logo of our party, ADP and the agenda of the party. We want issue based campaign. Nobody can steal our votes. In 2007, we stood by our votes.”
While speaking on the sideline of the reception for the lawmakers, senatorial aspirant for Osun West Senatorial District and former chieftain of the APC, who defected about three ago to ADP, Prince Dotun Babayemi clarified that the lawmakers only decided to move forward with a view to entrench good governance in Osun.