On Monday night the Ondo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) dismissed the defections of former Senator Ayo Patrick Akinyelure, representing the Ondo Central District, and the Director General of the Technical Aid Corps (TAC) Pius Olakunle Osunyikanmi to the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the beginning of their journey into political irrelevance.
On Monday night the Ondo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) dismissed the defections of former Senator Ayo Patrick Akinyelure, representing the Ondo Central District, and the Director General of the Technical Aid Corps (TAC) Pius Olakunle Osunyikanmi to the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the beginning of their journey into political irrelevance.
The Party also said the action of both Mr. Akinyelure and Mr. Osunyikanmi, was purely motivated by personal goals and individual ambitions which could not be fulfilled in the PDP.
In a statement issued by its Director of Publicity, Ayo Fadaka, to journalists in Akure, the capital of Ondo State, reacted to the defections of the two former financiers of the Party by announcing they had both already been replaced.
In the statement, Mr. Fadaka warned the APC not to greet the two defectors too warmly given their relationship to the embattled Governor Olusegun Mimiko. He also noted that they would no doubt stir up trouble within the APC.
“We, therefore, declare that these men who were truly acolytes of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, who is solely responsible for their emergence on our political space, owe all their political contents and relevance to him, have just begun a journey into political irrelevance, and as such are bereft of any capability to injure the spread and influence of our Party in this State,” the statement read in part.
In addition, the statement lambasted Senator Akinyelure for his voting record, including an apparent vote in favor of child marriage, as well as Mr. Osunyikanmi for his opportunistic attempts to save his job by switching Party allegiance.
However, the APC in Ondo State welcomed the two defectors into its fold in a statement signed by the Party’s Chairman, Isaacs Kekemeke.
Chairman Kekemeke saluted the courage of the two men and their decision to align with the change agenda of the APC.
“I must on behalf of the Chairman, all the party men and women in Ondo State, welcome Senator Ayo Akinyelure and Dr. Pius Osunyikanmi to the All Progressives Congress Ondo State Chapter.
“I salute their courage and their resolve to align with the change agenda of the APC Federal Government and determination to work with others in the APC to effect the necessary change in the administration of Ondo State come 2016,” Chairman Kekemeke said.
He revealed that as a party poised to take over the government in Ondo State and change the socio-economic fortunes of the citizenry of the State, the decision of both Akinyelure and Osunyikanmi to join hands with the APC was a morale booster.
“This present move by these gentlemen and their supporters should serve as an encouragement and eye-opener to all progressives still in the PDP and other parties to join the APC. We urge them to take action now by joining hands with us to end the strange rule of one man [Governor Mimiko] in the State”, the statement further said.