Akogun Oyedepo, chairman of the Kwara state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says he cannot be in the same party with Senate President Bukola Saraki and Abdulfattah Ahmed, governor of the state.
He said this in response to the rumour of Saraki and Ahmed’s imminent defection from the All Progressives Congress (APC) party.
Two senators, Shaaba Lafiagi (Kwara north) and Rafiu Ibrahim (Kwara south) as well as six members of the house of representatives from the state were among the federal legislators who defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to PDP on Tuesday.
Oyedepo, speaking on the wave of defection on a radio programme in Ilorin, blamed the party’s national leadership for being allegedly insensitive to the political configuration in Kwara and allowing themselves to be swayed by funding capacity of the defectors.
He said it would be better not to be in politics again than to face the shame of standing on the same rostrum with Saraki and Ahmed.
According to him, the option now before the leaders is to choose between his group and Saraki’s.
He said: “If we agree to work with them (Saraki), just imagine myself and (AbdulFattah Ahmed) Maigida standing on the same rostrum, pledging to do things for the people. It will be a shame; many people will look at me and wonder what has happened.
“So, it is better not to be in politics again. Instead of a dog being the treasurer for the lion, it is better for both to part ways and go on their separate hunting game.
“We have not sat down with the senate president, Dr. Bukola Saraki and the state governor, Alhaji AbdulFattah Ahmed, even though I’m hearing rumours that I have met with them and that they have offered me juicy positions.
“Those are all lies; the senate president despite his humongous wealth, does not yet have what it takes to buy me. He cannot ever buy me because he cannot buy my integrity. If my bank account is not fat, my integrity account is very fat.
“So they have not met with us but our national body said they have set up a committee to meet with the two sides next week and when that meeting comes up, we are going to tell the national body that we cannot accept the formula they have put down which is 60:40, 60 percent for a state defecting with the governor and 40 percent for the existing PDP members.
“And if they say what of 50:50, or 40:60 or 30:70 or even 10:90, we shall not accept; we cannot accept any offer. Anything less than our not working together, we cannot accept.
“So, we will tell our national body to choose between us and them and I know that they will not choose us because we don’t have money but we are not worried. We will only know that an end has come to our journey and our relationship (in the PDP).
“The blame is not from the Saraki camp; the blame is from our national leaders in the PDP; leadership in Nigeria is the conspiracy of the elite to punish the downtrodden.
“When they gave us the party, we inherited nothing and so whatever you see in the PDP today is the product of our efforts. For this alone we should not be interested in defecting from our own house but it is better we do so now and look forward to better future for our dear state.”
The Cable
