Albert Akintoye, a member of the House of Representatives who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), has denied his defection in the face of a threat from Governor Olusegun Mimiko.
Mr. Akintoye, who represents the Irele/Okitipupa Federal constituency in Ondo State, made the denial in a press statement issued on Saturday and broadcast repeatedly on a private radio station in Akure, the state capital.
A senior PDP source revealed that the legislator, who is popularly called SOT, was compelled to deny his defection after Governor Mimiko offered him money and threatened to “punish” him if he did not renounce his defection.
“He was offered money by Mr. Governor to come back and to maintain his position in the PDP,” the PDP official said.
Our correspondent stated that Mr. Akintoye had, on April 8, 2015, joined Olusola Oke, a prominent member of a rival faction of the PDP, to defect to the APC at a well-attended forum at the party’s secretariat in Akure located at 17 Oyemekun Street.
In the radio broadcast, Mr. Akintoye lied that by claiming that he never defected to the APC, vowing that he remained a “strong” member of the PDP. He added that he had merely gone to the APC secretariat to felicitate with the former PDP legal adviser, Olusola Oke, who was defecting to the opposition party in the state.
Our source disclosed that Mr. Akintoye’s recantation was fueled by financial inducement as well as fear. He said the governor was set to begin the systematic victimization of politicians who worked against him in the just concluded elections, especially those who defected to the APC in the closing weeks or days of the campaigns.
According to the source, Mr. Mimiko has regained his domineering spirit after he ensured that handpicked members of his faction of the PDP were declared winners of elections into the state and national assemblies.
“Dr. Mimiko now has the majority in the [state] assembly and he knows how to use them in getting whatever he wants. The Assembly speaker is his daughter and stooge,” a source said.
“I am still in PDP, I have never joined the APC,” Mr. Akintoye said on a radio broadcast monitored by our correspondent.
Our PDP source said Mr. Mimiko had ordered the legislator to renounce his defection or risk the end of his career at the National Assembly.
During the recent elections, unknown hoodlums torched Mr. Akintoye’s house.