Akinbade, who said he would not blame anybody for his resolve to defect from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) expressed optimism of winning the coming gubernatorial election made this disclosure while fielding questions from a journalist during an interactive session held inside the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Osun State Council, Osogbo.
He stated, “we were in the Labour Party (LP) sometimes in last year. There were having issues with a caretaker committee of the PDP in Osun. Both two factions came to beg me. I consulted with my people and we all decided to go back to PDP. You knew what happened during the primaries in July. Some of them said it to my face that Akinbade is a good candidate, but he has no money.”
According to Akinbade, “on July 1, 2018, I had a call from Obasanjo who told me that are you aware that you will not be picked after the conclusion of the PDP primaries. He said I should go and resign my membership of PDP and pick the ticket of ADC. I said it would not be possible. Then, he said I was heady, saying ADC would not pick a defeated gubernatorial aspirant.”
He continued, “a month to the PDP primaries, Oyinlola called me asking how many people are in my camp. I said I am not camping anybody. He said he knew how many delegates each governorship aspirants in the PDP had camped. He said he called me because the party had relaxed its stand of not picking defeated aspirants.”
He said if I lose, the ADC had agreed to pick me. He said I should resign my membership of the PDP. If Obasanjo and Oyinlola called me to prevail on me to come and pick the ADC ticket, who else do I need, then apart from that many people were calling to leave the PDP and join any party and that they would vote for me.
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“We formed the PDP together. I was chairman of the PDP when the party was at zero level. During my period, we built the party to the level of winning 26 House of Assembly seats and governorship election. I left the PDP then due to a high level of impunity. My boss Oyinlola was removed as national secretary. He challenged the case in court and won even at the appeal court. Shortly after, he was suspended.”
“Erelu too was removed as Minister, we beamed very agitative and they suspended six of us for giving Oyinlola a rousing welcome. They said we committed anti-party activity. We knew the party was heading to the rocks. We went Labour Party and the party became a force to be reckoned with”, Akinbade remarked.
He, however, contended he laid the foundation for the infrastructural development of Osun during his previous political appointments under the past civilian and military administrations in the state as commissioner for works.
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