Former Osun state governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola yesterday dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and aligned with the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the Saturday’s governorship election in the state.
The party’s flag and its emblem, broom were handed over to him by the APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, after being presented by his old time friend and serving Senator, Professor Sola Adeyeye, who is representing the Osun Central Senatorial district.
In his address at the rally in Osogbo City Stadium, Oyinlola recalled that his travail with the ruling party and President Goodluck Jonathan started when in 2011, he was invited by Mr. President who then indicated interest to run for the 2011 Presidency.
According to him, he told the President then that the right person to approach, was former
President Olusegun, adding that they later agreed, worked and struggled together to ensure his victory in the poll held over three years ago.
He stated that after the election, Jonathan did not only rubbished and sidelined the former President, but also marginalized the entire South West where he and Obasanjo belonged. He added that President Jonathan’s rage against the former President and the South West was reflected in the dissolution of Ogun state chapter of PDP EXCO as well as dismantling South Western leadership structure.
Oyinlola who accused Jonathan of marginalizing the South West in allotting key political positions, declared that PDP did not deserve Osun governorship election’s victory as he had failed to deliver on his political promises.
The former national PDP scribe stated that the selfish and self-conceited nature of the ruling party’s flagbearer in the Saturday’s gubernatorial poll, Senator Iyiola Omisore, led to exit and massive defection of the key state party’s stalwarts to another political party, including the APC.
Meanwhile, varied reactions, on Tuesday, trailed the defection of former governor of Osun State, Olagunsoye Oyinlola from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives, Congress (APC).
The PDP standard-bearer in the state, for Saturday’s governorship poll, Senator Iyiola Omisore “Oyinlola’s decampment to the APC is a good riddance to bad rubbish, saying his “inglorious ridiculous exit can’t stall my ordained victory on Saturday.’’
In a release issued by Omisore’s Director of Media and Strategy, Mr Diran Odeyemi, Omisore stated that “we watch without surprise the defection of Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola and his baseless tirades against the Peoples Democratic Party, a party on whose platform he governed Osun state for seven and half years and whose National Secretaryship he attempted to use in the service of his newfound party.
It reads in part, “our simple reaction is that the former governor is a confirmed serial betrayer, a politician who had lost whatever little following he had due to his inconsistency, political summersaults and unreliability in political alliances. His exit cannot stop the expected landslide victory of PDP on Saturday.”
Also the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State, Alhaji Ganiyu Olaoluwa, on Tuesday described the defection of ex governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola from the PDP to the All Progressive Congress as inglorious, saying such ill miscalculated decision amounted to political suicide.
In a press statement made available to newsmen in Osogbo yesterday, he said “Oyinlola requires the prayers of Nigerians as he embarked on a pitiable journey into political perdition with his fellow co-travelers, whose trademark is bare face lies, deceit and sheer propaganda”.
According to OlaOluwa, “it is almost unthinkable that the former governor under the platform of the PDP will return to the camp of those that succeeded in thwarting his administration through fraudulent judicial judgment and rubbishing all his government’s legacies”,
Oyinola had since defected to APC since the days of the 5 PDP governors and was only hanging on to see if Jonathan will give him the chance to come into PDP and fully destroy them from the inside, on the instructions and directions of APC?!
Now that did not happen and he had to formalize his membership of APC, which he had since registered with as a member?!
I wonder why Oyinlola, discovered that PDP is not the right party, after so many years. Does that mean he is a dollard or that he lacks courage to say the truth when it is needed? ONLY THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE SIR.