No fewer than 2,000 members of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) and the Action Congress of
Nigeria (ACN) on Thursday defected to the Labour
Party (LP) in Akure, Ondo State.
According to the the News Agency of Nigeria, the PDP
and the ACN members in Idanre Local Government
Area decamped to LP, barely two months to the Ondo
State governorship election.
Some of the defected members were former ACN
Women Leader, Mrs Akinniyi Sade, former ACN
Youth leader, Mr Abudu Bankole and former PDP Vice
Chairman, Mr Bolutayo Deke, among others.
Deputy Governor Alli Olanusi received the new entrants
on behalf of Gov. Olusegun Mimiko at the governor’s
office in Akure.
Mimiko, while thanking the people for appreciating
the good deeds of his administration, warned them
against succumbing to the antics of the opposition
parties.
According to him, the opposition are bent on
disparaging the various visible good works of the
administration.
The governor said that there were enough opportunities
in the LP for everybody to come along in the task of
transforming the state, adding that the number of
years a member joined the party counted for nothing in
the party.
“Your recognition as members of our great party is not
based on your numbers of years in the party. Your
contribution to the success of the party is what we use
to rate you as authentic members.
“Idanre is one of the strongholds of LP. I want to
appeal to you to go back home, look for your voters’
card and make sure that nobody comes around to
deceive you.
“You must not allow anybody to buy your card, that is
your right, and that is the only way you can safeguard
the future of this state,” Mimiko said.
He encouraged the women among the decamped former
PDP and ACN members to key into the various
empowerment schemes of the government by forming
themselves into cooperative societies to enable them to
benefit from the loans’ scheme.
The leader of the defectors, Mrs Akinniyi Sade, said
that the Mimiko-led government in the state had
impacted positively on the lives of the people.
She said that in Idanre and its environs, the
administration had alleviated the suffering of the
people by reconstructing the Amegbe bridge,
construction of the modern mega market, roads and
various empowerment programmes for the people.
The women leader assured that the people of Idanre
would record 100 per cent votes for Mimiko in October
to ensure that more dividends of democracy could be
extended to all parts of the state.