The ranks of opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State further got depleted on Wednesday, when a former aide of ex-Governor Segun Mimiko, Hon. Dare Aliu, led over 1000 of his supporters to defect to ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Aliu, who was the chairman of Ondo State Advertisement and Signage Board during the PDP-led administration of Mimiko, was received by a tumultuous crowd at the APC party secretariat in Akure.
While in PDP, he narrowly lost picking the party’s House of Representatives ticket for the Akure North/South Federal Constituency election, in 2019.
Giving reasons for quitting the PDP, Aliu said the party had derailed from its laid-down principles of internal democracy, and had been seriously fractured, especially at the Ondo State level.
“I would have done myself and my followers a great disservice if I had remained in a PDP whose leadership had lost touch with followers and what remained was only for them to keep bickering over frivolities, abandoning laid-down party principles.
“So, when I quit the PDP last year, I took time to understudy the APC and I’m enthralled by the discipline, focus, and unity in the party,” he enthused.
Aliu particularly praised the leadership role of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa in Ondo State for ensuring that the party remain strong and united, despite the political crisis that erupted during the illness of the late former Governor Rotimi Akeredolu.
“Governor Aiyedatiwa, no doubt, is a true leader, a father who comes with the olive branch to detractors, and warm embrace to his supporters. For the less than three months he has been Governor, there is a natural soothing balm on all frayed nerves in Ondo State, as he cleared all backlog of unpaid salaries.
“All around, rapid infrastructural development is also being witnessed under Aiyedatiwa, and as such, most Ondo State people, without being prompted, are asking Aiyedatiwa to continue as governor, beyond the mandate of the late Akeredolu,” Aliu appraised.
Meanwhile, the Director-General of Lucky Aiyedatiwa Campaign Organisation Foot Soldiers (LACO-FS), Hon. Yusuf Ogunleye, on the occasion expressed the conviction that the PDP in Ondo State “is now an empty hall, as many of its human pillars are running from it to the APC, especially for the sterling leadership qualities of Governor Aiyedatiwa”.
He commended the boldness of Aliu, once considered a strong PDP leader in Akure, for defecting to the APC, even as he informed that Aliu had been appointed as Director of of Diaspora Affairs, for the LACO-FS.