Kola Ologbondiyan, the National Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party has reacted to the latest defection of the party members to the opposition party, All Progressives Congress, APC.
Ologbondiyan has said that the the recent defection is as a result of the APC’s ploy to look for big names to stay relevant over the party’s failure. According to him, they have failed in the revalidation and registration of there members so they have employed the strategy of registering people who have left the PDP long time ago.
In an interview with Sahara Reporters on Wednesday, February 17, Ologbondiyan stated that some of the known PDP names such as Otunba Gbenga Daniels who trended in the media after they joined the APC have actually left the PDP before now.
In his words;
“Otunba Gbenga Daniel, immediately after the 2019 election, gave a public notice that he was leaving the party and that he was leaving politics completely. In March 2020, about a year ago, Gbenga Daniel in a public appearance declared that his people had come to ask him to leave for the APC one year ago and that he had no choice but to obey his people and he had since then been working with the governor of Ogun State so where is the news coming from that he just left the PDP?
“If there is any decamping regarding Otunba Gbenga Daniel, that means he decamped from one APC faction to another. Even in the message he gave out some days ago, he said he had been with the governor of Ogun State which means he had left the PDP since last year, so it was nothing new but what Nigerians must understand is that because of the failure of revalidation and registration exercise being conducted by the APC, they are looking for big names from the PDP, they cannot find and that’s why they are picking remarkable people who left the party long ago as having left now.”
Ologbondiyan also addressed reports making rounds that former deputy Governor of Osun, Omisore Iyiola defected from the PDP to APC. According to him, Omisore exited from the party a long time ago. He added that the APC is jealous of the PDP.
“As a matter of fact, he contested election in Osun State on the platform of the Social Democratic Party, is SDP not different from PDP? Why are people now saying he just left the PDP, which PDP?”
“They have some sort of attraction for the PDP, they want to divide the party and it is becoming very difficult for them to achieve. That’s why if someone left the PDP ten years ago, they repackage him as someone who just joined, what’s the meaning of that?”
According to him, the PDP remains strong and viable in the midst of oppositions. He stated that the APC rather has failed in ‘governance, as a party and in their strides to register members’.
“Our party (PDP) remains strong and very viable. Which sinking ship? There are no issues in PDP and there is no sinking ship as far as the PDP is concerned. Of recent, we had two governorship elections in the country, in Edo and in Ondo states, PDP won in Edo while APC won in Ondo, can a sinking political party be able to win a governorship election? Raw balderdash.
“APC has failed woefully, they failed as a political party, they have failed in governance and in their strive to register members, they are just speaking balderdash.”