From Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure

The crisis rocking the All progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State yesterday resulted into the defection of a leading member of the party and one of the governorship aspirants in the Septembºer 3 governorship primary election, Chief Olusola Oke into the Alliance for Democracy (AD).
Oke’s defection laid to rest speculations that the former legal Adviser of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was planning to dump APC for another party to realise his governorship ambition.
Speaking with his supporters across the 18 Local Government Areas in the state during a meeting held with them at his residence in Akure last night, Oke stated that his defection was necessitated by the injustice perpetrated by some leaders of the party over the last primary election.
He explained that he waited patiently for the leaders of the party to correct the injustice before opting out of the party, but nothing was done.
Oke who said he took the decision to dump the party after due consultation with some APC leaders and supporters across the country, disclosed that he would contest the forthcoming governorship election on the platform of AD.
He said he was contesting for the governorship seat in the forthcoming election to rescue the people of the state from underdevelopment, describing AD as home of the progressives.
He noted that the PDP in the state has been celebrating the decision of the APC to field Rotimi Akeredolu as the party’s candidate in the election.
According to him “I was the first person to raise alarm over the giant fraud in that primary. I was later vindicated by the appeal committee which ruled that the primary be cancelled, that a new primary be conducted where a popular candidate will emerge.
“But Oyegun and his cabal proceeded to submit that name to the INEC thereby killing the dream and the vision of Ondo people in APC to have a true change they have been yearning for.. I confess to you that the dreams of the founders of APC are good and laudable. The philosophy behind APC is good, but unfortunately, some self opinionated, some cabal hijacked the soul of the party at the national level.
“They have enthroned injustice over justice, Inequality over equity, unfairness over fairness, and therefore they made it impossible for true change to be actualised this time on the platform of APC.
“I stand on the side of the people of Ondo State, I represent their dreams and vision for a new order in Ondo State. I am a compatriot who believe that we must not allow the status quo to prevail.
“The status quo in Ondo state is anti People and it has reduced the liberty of the citizens. All those virtues we used to cherish in Ondo state, the virtues of liberty, dignity, pride, integrity have all gone down because of orchestrated poverty.
“We can no longer tolerate a situation where government has no dream, no direction, vision and the people are made to wallow in abject poverty. It is to reverse this situation that we have everything to APC to have a platform where truth will prevail and unfortunately the National Chairman killed the dream.”