From Priscilla Ediare, Ado Ekiti
Former Ekiti State Governor Segun Oni has withdrawn his membership from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Oni was one of the governorship aspirants that contested the PDP January 26 primary election where Hon Bisi Kolawole, had emerged as its flag bearer for the June 18 poll,
Oni was the first runner-up in the primary election.
The spokesman of Segun Oni Movement, Mr Adebayo Jackson, confirmed this in a telephone chat with newsmen in Ado Ekiti on Saturday.
Jackson stated that the decision of Oni and thousands of supporters to leave PDP was taken at stakeholders’ meeting held at Oni’s residence in Ifaki-Ekiti, Ido/Osi Local Government Area of the state.
Oni, has however not indicated the party he would be pitching his tent with, but speculation has it that the ex-governor may join the All Progressives Grand Alliance(APGA) to contest the governorship poll.
He stated that Oni yielded to pressures from the overwhelming majority of Ekiti people who are desirous of returning him to the government house under any political party.
The former PDP State Publicity Secretary hinted that the former governor would be leaving the PDP with a sizeable number of members, adding his resignation from the party is with immediate effect.
‘Engr Segun Oni has finally resigned from PDP. All the people of Ekiti have decided that they want Segun Oni on any platform. And he has hearkened to the calls. In fact, it was the image of Oni that has been promoting the image of PDP in Ekiti State. And once the PDP has decided to kill itself we have to take a bow and leave.
‘Ekiti people will not leave Oni alone to go like that because they can’t see any other person that can deliver what Oni has been doing for them.
‘So, it is the voice of the people and not the voice of anybody. As it is now, both PDP and APC will be contesting against the people of Ekiti. And the symbol of the people of Ekiti State is Engr. Oni,’ Jackson said.
Also speaking, former Director of Segun Oni Campaign Organization, Hon. Lanre Ogunsuyi said the former governor’s exit was informed by a high degree of injustice meted out to Oni by some powerful forces in the party during the January 26, primary election.
‘We have just said bye-bye to PDP and Oga thanked all the people that worked with him and dissolved all the structures that ran the purported primary in PDP. What we have now is a confluence of people called the Segun Oni Movement. By next week, we should have sorted ourselves out in line with the INEC timetable.
‘It is normal to speculate about politicians especially a politician of Oni’s stature. He is a former governor and he has just left PDP. What is certain is that we have left PDP, but we are not certain about where we are going.’
On why Oni left PDP, he said: ‘Because PDP is a cult. Oni has been consistent in the search for truth. Truth in Nigerian politics means you will be persecuted and all that and that is all that has been happening. When you are consistently in the search of truth, fair play, those things have no value in Nigerian politics,’ he said.