The Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has said the state governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke, will not dump the party.
The PDP in a statement by its Caretaker Chairman, Dr Akindele Adekunle, obtained in Osogbo on Saturday, said the rumour of Adeleke’s defection allegedly emanated from the All Progressives Congress and was circulated on social media.
The party described the insinuation as a failed distraction agenda, calling on Osun voters to troop out en masse and vote all the PDP candidates in the state Assembly elections on March 11.
He added that Adeleke remained ever committed to the PDP as evidently demonstrated in the presidential and National Assembly elections, stressing that the PDP would repeat the same feat on March 11 by clearing all the 26 Assembly seats in the state.
The statement read in part, “Let me urge the public to discard the rumour of defection. There is no reason for it, especially given the impressive victory he led the PDP to just a few days ago at the presidential and National Assembly elections in the state.
“The Osun APC is badly decimated and is struggling to even find its feet. Governor Adeleke has within 100 days proven that good governance is possible, hence the massive goodwill the PDP currently enjoys across the state. So voters should ignore the lies from the pit of hell. Governor Adeleke remains a PDP leader and Governor,” it concluded.
But responding in another statement, the APC acting chairman in the state, Mr. Tajudeen Lawal, said the Osun PDP chairman had exaggerated notion of Adeleke’s popularity, adding that no responsible party would have anything doing with the Osun governor.
Lawal further disclosed that the story credited to the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, lampooning the Osun APC leaders over the results of the last elections, was a mere fabrication from the rumour mill of the PDP and a figment of the imagination of those spreading the mere composition scripted to confuse the people.
He said the President-elect was a seasoned politician.
The statement further read in part, “The story credited to Tinubu lampooning the Osun APC leaders over the results of the last charade, tagged elections, was a mere fabrication from the rumour mill of the PDP and a figment of the imagination of those spreading the mere composition scripted to confuse the people.
“(The) state caretaker chairman of the PDP, Dr Akindele Adekunle, and his co-travellers should desist from using falsehoods to drive political campaign of calumny against the APC.”
He called on the APC members to troop out en masse to exercise their civic right during the House of Assembly elections coming up next Saturday.