File photo: Amosun, middle right, speaks to the media

Abiodun Onafuye/Abeokuta

It was a blessed weekend for the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ogun State as about 1,237 members of the Abe-Igi Babaloke group in Idiroko ward, Ipokia local government council of the state defected to the ruling party.

The defectors led by their leader, Abdul Rasak Isa were received by the state governor, Ibikunle Amosun during his tour of the Ipokia local government in continuation of his electioneering campaign.

The Abe-Igi Babaloke group had been a strong group sympathetic to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governorship candidate in the state, Isiaq Abiodun Akinlade.

The group has been with him since 2003 and has often delivered the area to him when he represented Yewa South/Ipokia Federal Constituency both on the platform of PDP and ACN in 2011.

Our correspondent reliably gathered that the group fell apart with the lawmaker early this year and has been ruminating on which party to join.

Leader of the group, Abdul Rasak Isa, who spoke about why the group left for the APC, declared that the group has come to join a moving train for the rebuilding mission, assuring the governor and the leadership of the party of total victory during the forthcoming general elections.

It was also gathered that the group decided to join the APC this time around as their kinsman is now the party’s flag bearer for the Federal House of Representatives.

The Yewa axis of the constituency has been producing representatives in the area since 1999, and the Ipokia constituency has no choice than to support whoever was presented to them.

“Adekunle Akinlade is our son, he is one of us, he is our own and we believe so much in him. With his track record when he was with the governor as an SA, we know that he will not disappoint us.

“We laboured for Isiaq Akinlade so much since 2003 but he has never fulfilled his promises to us. He believes in giving us money for party and merriment and other things not mindful of what will be beneficial to us.

“Now, our son is going there and moreover, we will be ungrateful to the present administration if we fail to identify with it. We are not deaf or blind, we are living witnesses to all the good work that are going on all around. The only thing we can do for it is to support it and all other candidates from the party, hence our decision to defect to APC,” he posited.

Governor Ibikunle Amosun, the governorship candidate of the APC in the forthcoming elections, thanked them for their belief and trust in his administration, promising them that they will never be treated in the party as newcomers.

He urged them to team up with other party members to ensure that APC wins convincingly in the area.

In a similar vein, supporters of both the Social Democratic Party, SDP and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Ilaro in Yewa South local government had on Tuesday last week, during the governor’s visit to the area, announced their defection to APC.

The SDP decampees were led by one of the strong politicians and a respected elder in the town, Chief Ogundimu. The over 1,650 defectors expressed satisfaction in the government of Ibikunle Amosun, pledging their loyalty and support for the APC during the forthcoming general elections in the State.