Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
The governorship candidate of the Allied People’s Movement (APM) in Ogun State during the March 9 general elections, Abdul-Kabir Adekunle Akinlade, on Monday, dumped APM and returned to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Akinlade, who announced his return to the APC at a stakeholders meeting held at the APM secretariat in Abeokuta, also directed his supporters to return to “pre-October 2018 APC”.
He explained that the decision to return to APC was taken during a stakeholders meeting of leaders and elders of Ogun APC on Sunday, noting that everybody who contested the 2019 elections on the platform of APM had been directed to bury their grievances and return to the fold.
Akinlade recalled that it was the struggle to actualise his mandate and redress the injustice allegedly meted out to him and his supporters that made him to seek an alternative platform.
He, however, urged his supporters to set their grievances aside, display the same courage and high sense of responsibility that kept them on the cause of justice through the last 15 months.
Akinlade declared that although the judgement of Supreme Court of Nigeria on the Ogun State governorship election, delivered last Wednesday fell short of what he and his supporters expectation, adding “we have set in motion a chain of actions that hinge on our resolve to sustain the noble vision tagged ‘Mission to Rebuild our dear state.’
“We have always expressed the conviction that in the fullest of time and after the struggle to restore the mandate of our people, we shall return to the APC, which we toiled with fellow compatriots to build, nourish and entrench in Ogun State.
“It is with this reality in mind that I most sincerely call on everyone of you that it is time to return home to the pre-October 2nd 2018 Ogun State APC political family with the view to sustaining our core base, consolidating our gains so far and continuing to support the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari to positively reposition our dear country,” Akinlade stated.