APC accuses another PDP Governor of denying defection plans

APC accuses another PDP Governor of denying defection plans

The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has refuted Governor Ademola Adeleke’s denial of plans to defect from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), labeling his claims as false.

In a statement issued on Saturday by the party’s Director of Media and Information, Kola Olabisi, the APC alleged that Governor Adeleke had indeed made overtures to join the party but was told by its national leadership that he would not receive an automatic governorship ticket and would have to follow due process.

The party criticized Adeleke for allegedly misleading PDP stakeholders—including former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola and other prominent figures—by denying any intention to switch parties.

This comes after Adeleke dismissed defection rumors during a PDP stakeholders’ meeting, describing them as “fake news” spread by those threatened by his administration’s achievements.

The APC expressed disappointment, claiming that Adeleke failed to admit that his efforts to join the opposition were rejected.

The statement reads: “Many people were not privy to how some governors in the Southwest geo-political zone and some notable millionaire industrialists were using the dead of the night to package Governor Adeleke for the failed defection exercise, his begging visit to Chief Bisi Akande in his Ibadan, Oyo State residence, is still fresh in the memory of the right-thinking members of the society.

“We wonder why Governor Adeleke failed to reveal to the PDP stakeholders that the condition given to him by the leadership of the ruling party at the national level was that he would have to queue up and that he could not be given an automatic ticket for the governorship election under the APC.

“If Governor Adeleke is cocksure that he is popular, why touting the option of defecting into the APC to fly the governorship flag of the party? Could it be the desolate state of his so-called ruling party that was responsible for his initial plan to defect into the APC?

“It is those viewing the PDP-produced governor from outside the state that are ascribing the attribute of popularity to him when in actual fact, his party witnesses defection of its members into the leading opposition party almost on daily basis.

“It is a misnomer for Governor Adeleke to have an exaggerated notion of his political popularity, influence and acceptability when his shortcomings are constantly showing a red sign having served the state within the limit of his unenviable capacity for three years running which has proved to be a monumental disaster to the overall development of the state.

“We congratulate the forward-looking members and supporters of our party that God Almighty was magnanimous enough to have divinely blocked the aspired defection of Governor Adeleke into our party which could have caused untold friction, lack of cohesion, disunity and schisms of an unimaginable dimension.

“We, as a party, are cautioning Governor Adeleke to retract the lies told the innocent stakeholders of the Osun State chapter of the PDP or risks being exposed to the public domain a comprehensive information on his copious failed attempts to defect into our party.”