The All Progressives Congress (APC) has ‘become a poisoned space’ with one man ‘kneeling on its neck’, the Deputy Governor of Ondo State, Agboola Ajayi, has said.
Agboola was formally welcomed to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) by the national chairman of the opposition party, Uche Secondus, during a visit to the state on Monday. He resigned his membership of the APC on Sunday.
For months, the deputy governor was at loggerheads with Governor Rotimi Akeredolu and his former party over the coming governorship election in the state.
Mr Secondus led a delegation of the PDP to Ondo to welcome the deputy governor at the party’s state secretariat in Akure. Those present include a former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, and the Southwest leader of PDP, Olorogun Olafeso.
Speaking on why he left the ruling party, Mr Ajayi said his political sojourn in APC ended because “the party has become a poisoned space.” It is a house divided against itself and in Ondo State in particular, the party is having breathing difficulties because one man is kneeling on its neck.”
He said he chose PDP because it is a larger house, which he had helped to build and a place which is not under the chokehold of one man or a clique.
“At the moment in Ondo State, democracy and wide participation by the people have given way to unsolicited and illegitimate outsourcing of power, familitocracy, nepotism, clannishness and primitive accumulation of illegal wealth under state cover.”
He said his new party would return power to the people of Ondo State. Mr Ajayi was silent on whether he would pick the governorship election form under the party.
It would be recalled that his spokesperson, Tope Okeowo, had on Sunday said the governorship race cannot be ruled out of his principal’s plans.
In his address, Mr Secondus said the PDP is a responsible party for responsible people like Mr Ajayi and promised that the party would be governed by its constitution.
