A few weeks before the general election, members and chieftains of some major political parties in Ondo State have defected to the Labour Party.
The defectors are from the All Progressives Congress, the Peoples Democratic Party and the Social Democratic Party in the Akoko South-East/Akoko South-West Federal Constituency of the state.
At the event, held in Isua Akoko, the headquarters of the Akoko South-East Local Government Area of the state, the defectors also declared support for the presidential candidate of the LP, Mr Peter Obi.
One of the leaders of the defectors and former House of Representatives aspirant of the APC, Mr Stephen Adeyeri, said Obi’s impeccable track records coupled with his detailed manifesto containing the solutions to myriads of challenges troubling the nation, spurred him and his supporters to join the Labour Party and openly declared his firm support for the presidential candidate.
Adeyeri, who predicted landslide victory for Obi, said Nigerians were fed up with the two major political parties (the PDP and the APC), which, he said, had failed woefully in the administration of the affairs of the nation. He stressed that the only better alternative was the LP.
He said, “Obi is the candidate to beat because he has proven to be competent among other candidates. His records, while he held sway in Anambra is in the public domain, he didn’t get all of that by subterfuge but by the dint of hard work.
“I’m here to sell the candidacy of Obi to my supporters, and I told them the reason why he must be elected, particularly his plans to move the country from consumption to the state of production.”
According to him, a competent hand is needed to change the fortunes of the country for the better. He pointed out that the solution to the myriad of challenges ranging from fuel scarcity, dearth of electricity, hunger and host of others troubling residents would soon be things of the past if Peter Obi was elected as the president of the country.
Adeyeri noted that it would amount to “absurdity if those who weaponised poverty on innocent residents have their ways again”, and he urged the supporters to vote all the candidates of the party (Labour Party) in the forthcoming general election.
Earlier, the LP’s state secretary, Mr. Agabje Abiodun, who welcomed the defectors from the APC, PDP and SDP into the party, advised them to vigorously campaign for the LP in the nooks and crannies of the state.
He stated that the immediate past Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, had creditably performed well when he governed the sunshine state under the platform of the Labour Party from 2009-2014, hence Labour Party must be voted based on antecedents.
He said, “Labour Party is the only fast growing party in Nigeria; we can see how people are trooping to join the Obi’s movement. When Mimiko was governor, can you compare his performance with that of the present administration that has failed to meet the expectations of the people?
“People are tired of the present situation. Adeyeri has said it all, residents are suffering, no fuel, steep price of food items among others are bedevilling everybody, even the APC members are lamenting the ostentatious hardship.”
Punch