The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Wednesday said that Governor Ademola Adeleke should not bother to defect to its fold.
A few days ago, the governor, his nephew and popular Afrobeat star, David Adeleke (popularly known as Davido), and billionaire businessman, Dr. Deji Adeleke, had a meeting with President Bola Tinubu in Lagos.
The photographs of the meeting had generated diverse reactions and sparked rumour of Adeleke’s impending defection for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC.
But PDP spokesperson in the state, Mr. Oladele Bamiji said that APC members in the state are naive and arrogant by claiming sole ownership of the President.
He also said that the state APC expected President Tinubu and Adeleke to fight, forgetting that both being leaders of the entire federation and a prominent unit of the country respectively would have reasons to meet and discuss issues around governance and politics.
He added: ‘Maybe because they feel that the definition of their own federal might is to use the opportunity of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu being the leader of the nation to financially strangulate the wheel of progress in Osun State.
‘Maybe they forgot that, in a federal system of government, if there is a failure in Osun State, under normal circumstances, the ultimate effect of it should go to the President. Osun APC members are naive’.
Insisting that APC would not allow Adeleke to join the national ruling party, a former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Timothy Owoeye, declared that the APC ticket was not for sale, adding: ‘I am saying this categorically that APC ticket is not for sale. As a matter of fact, as of today, we don’t see Adeleke as a member or part of APC as a party. Let me be sincere with you, the APC in Osun is the party to beat.
‘I want to tell you that if not because of the fear of the unknown that is disturbing the Adeleke family and the PDP, they wouldn’t have been showing the intention of coming to the APC.
‘We have been saying this times without number that APC in Osun, if not because of the brigandage that followed the 2022 election and that of 2023, we shouldn’t have had PDP as elected officials across the state.
‘Now that the Adeleke family has seen that their tenure is already terminated, come 8 August 2026, we are driving away the PDP from the Osun government, and we want to appeal to our people to remain calm. There is no space for PDP or Adeleke in the APC’.
Buttressing the state’s PDP opinion about P Tinubu’s meeting with Adeleke, spokesperson for the governor, Mr. Olawale Rasheed said that his principal would not defect to any political party.
‘He remains a bonafide member and leader of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun state. The media speculation about likely or imminent defection is fake news. Governor Adeleke remains a member and leader of the PDP in Osun state.
‘The visit by the Adeleke dynasty to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a routine courtesy visit. Any reading of defection agenda into the visit is mere fake news’, Rasheed said in a statement.
