800 APC Members Have Defected To PDP

The ruling All Progressives Congress in Kwara State has reportedly suffered a massive blow numerically as hundreds of supporters jump ship.

 

File Photo

 

The Kwara State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Iyiola Oyedepo, has said that no fewer than 800 members of the All Progressives Congress in the state have defected to the PDP.

 

In an interview with a correspondent in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital on Friday, he stated that Dr. Hanafi Alabere led the defectors from Alanamu Ward in Ilorin West Local Government Area.

 

Oyedepo said, “By our record, about 800 members defected from the APC to the PDP. There is one Dr. Alapere, he is their leader in Alanamu Ward in Ilorin West. He led them to defect to our party.  The time he was in the APC, nobody could defeat him in that area. Now he has led all those people that were with him in the APC to the PDP.”

 

He said the defectors were received by the party during the visit of executive members of the PDP in the North Central Zone, led by their Zonal Chairman, Mr. Theophilus Dakas.

 

He described the defection of Alabere and others as a pointer to the popularity of the PDP in the state. Dakas was said to have lauded the PDP executives in the state for vibrancy of the party despite the internal crisis it experienced.

 

According to him, the party leadership has directed that power should be devolved to the ward level of the party. He also advised his party’s members to continue to work for the progress of the party through aggressive membership drive.

 

In a related development, the Chairman of the PDP in Nasarawa State, Mr. Francis Orogu, has condemned the recent appointment of members of the Nasarawa State Independent Electoral Commission alleged to be card-carrying members of the APC.

 

The chairman alleged that Governor Umaru Al-Makura gathered his loyalists and made them leaders of NASIEC.

He said that the PDP would not accept it.

 

He said, “We all know that we are dealing with somebody who never respects the rule of law.”

 

According to him, the governor has been paying only a fraction of salaries to workers in the state, but approved N195m for the conduct of local government election.

 

Efforts to reach the state Chairman of APC, Mr. Philip Shekewo, in his office and on the mobile telephone for comments, were unsuccessful as he neither answered his telephone nor replied several text messages sent to him.