Leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ese-Odo Local Government Area of Ondo state, on Thursday, refuted reports that members of the party political party, defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
The leaders from the local government who include, Chief Sunday Yayu, Hon Suffy Uguoji, and Chief Richard Kekemeke, stated this in a statement signed by them, saying those who visited the state Chairman of APC, Hon. Ade Adetimehin, are not members of the party in the state.
The leaders maintained that there was no iota of truth in the defection story, saying it was manipulated to give a false impression to the people of the state that APC is not dead in the Arogbo axis of Ese Odo Local Government Area.
They described those who visited the APC Chairman as nomadic and fair-weather politicians who were not even residents of the area, saying most of them are government workers residing outside the state.
The statement read: “The People Democratic Party wishes to react to a story by the leadership of APC, Ese Odo local government area that six prominent members of the party paid a surprise visit to the State Chairman of the APC, Ade Adetimehin with the intent to decamp to the APC in the next few days.
“We hereby inform the general public for the avoidance of doubt that none of our members is decamping to the APC. The story is totally false and without any iota of truth.
“It was manipulated to give a false impression to the people to enliven APC that is already dead in Arogbo axis of Ese Odo Local Government Area. This action is for the purpose of attracting votes in the forthcoming 2023 general elections.
The leaders explained that “This reaction becomes obligatory in view of some APC leaders in Arogbo kingdom who are currently embarking on Clandestine activities to undermine the PDP to promote APC candidates for the 2023 general elections.
“The PDP in the area is duty bound to let the leadership of the APC note that the six persons whose names were mentioned are mainly civil servants as indicated in their write-up.
According to the leaders, “for instance, Pastor John Kemini is a worker in Lagos who was offered our party ticket to contest 2019 State House of Assembly but was defeated overwhelmingly even in his unit at Irousoama.
“Since then we have not seen him but surfacing now as our party member decamping to the APC. Also, Success Odogbo is a civil servant in the ministry of Justice, Mike Kpemi is a staff of NECO, Samuel Twatimi works with Amnesty Office, Abuja, while Mr Isaac Abise attempted to contest 2019 but disappeared without taking part in the contest till today and Bekewei Amuluku is a teacher.
“All the aforementioned names are senior High Chief Bibopere Ajube’s aides who are on his payroll and are always available at his beck and call day and night. It is therefore most ludicrous and Preposterous for anybody to imagine that they are PDP members decamping to the APC.
“One may need to remind the APC that there are processes involved in any political leader who wants to decamp. He must first of all tender a letter of resignation to his former party at the ward level and possibly get an acceptance letter which serves that he was a member of that party.
“But nobody among the aforementioned people did that before now. We must confess here that some of them were seen as mere opposition fifth–columnists bent on espionage on PDP under the ruling party APC.
The PDP in the Arogbo axes of Ese Odo LG is too strong to be bothered by a false defection masterminded by people who are troubled in our immediate society by the growing popularity of the party in the area. In fact, the mass defection they are envisaging is a mirage unless they are going to import a crowd elsewhere.
“It is quite unbelievable that the decampees paid a surprise visit to the chairman of the APC when he was not expecting them. It indicates that they were the people going about to appeal to APC leadership to accept them into their party when it is supposed to be the other way round.
“We salute the PDP members in Ese Odo LG particularly Arogbo Ijaro Community for their Impregnable fidelity to the party and they should work assiduously to win the forthcoming general elections in 2023 with every commitment.”
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