‘Why Adeyeye defected to the APC’
By Facts have emerged why former National Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Dayo Adeyeye, on Tuesday defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti state ahead of the July 14 governorship election in the state.
Although the former Minister of State for Works was not available to speak to BusinessDay on his decision to dump the party under which he contested the governorship primaries and lost to Ekiti State Deputy Governor Olusola Eleka, his close ally, who wishes to remain anonymous, told our correspondent that the former PDP scribe “pitched his political tent with the APC in order to rehabilitate himself politically.
“If you understand the political permutation in the state particularly the force which the APC is mobilizing for the state governorship election, it appears APC will clinch the governorship election. So the Prince wants to go to where he will be reckoned with considering the facts that in the PDP, he has been rendered irrelevant.”
When asked the moral justification for Adeyeye’s defection to the APC, a party he so maligned and discredited when he was the PDP spokesman, the source simply said ” this is the way of Nigerian politicians.”
But addressing newsmen in Ekiti on Tuesday, Adeyeye, who earlier commended the process of the Ekiti PDP governorship primaries led by Delta state governor Ifeanyi Okowa, however, blamed Governor Ayo Fayose for his loss, accusing him of highhandedness and manipulation of the process.
“For my friends, admirers, patrons and well-wishers I want to reiterate that Fayose is an impossible person to deal with. A pompous martinet with a huge ego, he is deliberately divisive and deceitful. He does not believe in reconciliation and no effort at reconciliation will work with him. “Therefore after deep introspection and wide consultation with various stakeholders in this state, my supporters and I have decided to leave Egypt which the Fayose administration represents and join hands with patriotic Ekiti people to board the train of the APC for the onward journey to our promised land.
Adeyeye’s defection to the APC, a party he so maligned and discredited has elicited reaction from Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose, who said that the PDP will not in any way be affected by it.
The governor made the claim in a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Public Communication and New Media, Lere Olayinka, in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday.
Fayose said that Adeyeye’s defection to the ruling APC had merely confirmed his belief that Adeyeye was “never a loyal and committed member of the People’s Democratic Party.”
“I am not bothered by the action taken by the former aspirant in the just concluded PDP governorship primary election in the state.
“His move to APC will not in any way affect us. This is because majority of those he thought were behind him did not defect with him.
“In fact, one of his two party agents for the last primary is still with us in PDP and you know what that means.
“If somebody is your party agent and could not go with you to another party, it tells a lot; and even as he is moving from PDP, many others from APC are coming to us. So, we have nothing to lose with his defection,” Fayose said.
The governor said that he held no grudge against Adeyeye because he has the right to move from one political party to the other; adding that he wished him well in his new party.
“While he was the PDP national spokesman, he had spoken terrible things against the APC and he has now gone to join the same party,” Fayose noted.
“We tried for him and if he has left; he is free to go. We are in a democracy and people can make their decisions,” he said.
Innocent Odoh, Abuja
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