By Dele Moses, Ilorin
A large number of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) members in the north senatorial district of Kwara State have left the party for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The people who said they numbered about 10,000 attributed their decision to defect to the PDP to lingering internal crisis in the APC.
The APC has since emerging the ruling party in the state last year been engulfed in internal crisis that has reportedly split it into factions.
The APC members who formally defected on Thursday at the state secretariat of the PDP after announcing, about a week earlier, their intention to do said the internal crisis in the APC was already giving the party a setback.
Their spokesman, Manzuma Kawu Dogo, who said they were about 10,000 in number explained that few of them only came in representative capacity from 58 wards of the north district in compliance with the state protocols on the COVID-19.
Dogo said they had to leave the APC because anti-democratic practices and injustice in the party as the internal crisis lingered on had become unbearable for them.
He said party members were de-enfranchised, rendered miserable and no longer had sense of belonging due to unfulfilled campaign promises.
“Along the line, the centre cannot hold and things fall apart as a result of injustice, lack of fairness, recognition and sense of belonging to the party members,” he stated.
The defectors’ spokesman said the next local government elections would mark gradual extinction of the ruling APC from the state .
“After waiting for a year, we discovered that the truth has prevailed, necessitating our movement as against compromising our principle. It is high time for us to maintain our clear noble principle towards bringing positive changes and betterment to our people. As you can see there is nothing in the PDP to share now to anyone, therefore our decamping from APC to PDP is based on conviction, ” Dogo clarified.
The defectors’ spokesman said the next local government election would mark gradual extinction of the APC in the state.
The PDP state chairman, Engr Kola Shittu, while welcoming the defectors assured them that they will enjoy same rights the existing party members enjoy without discrimination.
“We’re not surprised with the development due to unfulfilled promises of the present administration in the state. Doors of our party are wide open just as our umbrella is big enough to house every citizen of the state,” he said.
He espoused on the defectors’ claims of alleged non performance by the APC-led government in the state saying if the PDP had remained in government the state would have witnessed better development.
Shittu said “if our party had won the last gubernatorial election in the state, by now workers in the state would have started enjoying the N30,000 new minimum wage in fulfillment of our agreement with the organised labour in the state,’ he stated.