A swift intervention by a stalwart of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State, Omooba Dotun Babayemi,has saved the party from losing over 300 of its members in Boluwaduro Local Government area of the state to All Progressives Congress (APC).
Members of the PDP who were aggrieved and cut across the ten wards of the local government area as led by Honourable Abdulraman Lawrence Famodimu, had concluded plans to defect to the ruling party this week as arrangements had been made to receive them by the leadership of APC.
According to the aggrieved members of the party as expressed by Famodimu, their leader, they had suffered enough harassments and victimization in the hands of the Senator Ademola Adeleke group and could not bear it anymore
However upon being informed of the planned defection coming especially from the bulk of his supporters in the council area,Babayemi in concert with some leaders of the party, foiled the move by dissuading them from going ahead with their plans of cross carpeting to the APC.
While addressing a formal please-do-not-leave-PDP meeting held at the weekend at the Otan Ayegbaju residence of the leader of the group,Babayemi appealed to the aggrieved members of the party in the council area who were planning to defect to the APC or any other party, to rescind their decision.
“When I heard about the planned defection of some of our members in this local government, I became very uncomfortable. In fact, I left everything I was doing in Abuja, to rush down so as plead with you people and I thank God that you have reasoned along with us. We don’t want any member of our party to defect. Rather, we want more harvest and influx of new members into our party. I’m assuring you that you would not be forgotten at the end of the day” he assured
Babayemi said that if they had made good their threat of quiting the PDP,it might have affected the chances of the party at the forthcoming gubernatorial election slated for July 16, stressing that,”Politics being a game of number,even one is many and that’s why instead of decreasing we should always strive to be increasing on all fronts”
Instead of defecting from the PDP, especially as the governorship election in the state is drawing nearer,he maintained that all hands must be on deck for the party to triumph at the polls.
Babayemi said that the pleas to them not to leave the PDP had become imperative in view of the fact that the APC has nothing to offer the aggrieved members of the party and others in the state rather than hardship.
Among those who equally spoke at the meeting include a member of the state Caretaker Committee, Alhaji Rasaq Oyelami, Dr Romoke Edu and Dr Ayantunji.
Earlier, while the former Women Leader of the party in the local government area, Mrs Bola Awoleye, expressed displeasure with the treatment being meted out to them by the Adeleke group, the Chairman of Ward 5, Honourable Ajibade Bamidele, complained bitterly about the way the party was being run at the local and state levels.
Meanwhile, Famodimu in his submission, said but for the prompt intervention of Omooba Dotun Babayemi and other leaders of the party in the state, they would have defected from the PDP to APC this week on account of ostracization by their party, “especially with the winner-takes-all mentality of the Adeleke group”
” I want to seriously commend Omooba Dotun Babayemi and other leaders of our party who passionately pleaded with us not to leave the PDP as we had planned. Let me confess to this gathering that the stage for our defection had already been set and we would have been received into the APC by its leadership on Monday or thereabouts” said the leader of the group
He assured that with the intervention of the leaders of the PDP, they have heeded the pleas and would stay put in the party to work for its success at the coming gubernatorial election.