PDP disowns Bakare, other defectors to Ogun APC
The alleged loyalists of late Senator Buruji Kashamu, the strongman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun, have defected to the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) (APC).
The PDP branded the defectors as “political merchants” who were put in the party to “create disaffection and disharmony.”
Former Director General of Kashamu’s Governorship Campaign Team, Aare Remilekun Bakare, former Commissioner for Special Duties under Otunba Gbenga Daniel’s administration, Chief Kola Sorinola, and a host of others from Abeokuta South, Obafemi Owode, and Abeokuta North Local Governments who were once loyal to Kashamu declared for APC on Monday evening.
Governor Dapo Abiodun, Chairman of the Ogun APC Caretaker Committee, Chief Yemi Sanusi, and other ruling party leaders, including former Reps members Chief Bode Mustapha and Adekunle Adesina, welcomed them.
However, Ogun PDP claimed less than 24 hours after the defection that the defectors were neither party leaders nor members of late Kashamu’s political family.
Bakare and others only returned to APC after realizing their game plan had failed following the peace brokered in Ogun PDP by the Dr. Bukola Saraki-led National Reconciliation and Strategy Committee, according to the party’s Publicity Secretary, Oyejide Sunkanmi.
In a statement, Oyejide said that the PDP recognizes the defectors’ democratic and constitutional rights to free association, but urged Ogun residents to see Bakare and others as acting in their own best interests, not those of the PDP or the Kashamu political family.
“History has a way of repeating itself,” he said. Remember that the same Dr. Remi Bakare, who is said to have led the “defectors,” angrily and unreasonably refused the Ogun Central Senatorial ticket freely provided to him by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) led by Chief Segun Osoba in 2011.
“Bakare is notorious for political blunders stemming from uncontrollable anger, which he incorrectly referred to as ‘principles.’
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“Despite being elected chairman of the apex caucus (a body formed purely for administrative convenience) by our late leader, he was unable to provide the much-needed leadership for the Kashamu political family, as things began to fall apart under his directionless leadership, culminating in his return to his political family – the APC!
“While we sympathize with the few who have been duped into joining him and his leader in the APC, we urge all relatives, associates, and members of the Kashamu political family across Ogun State’s 236 wards to remain in the PDP that our late leader worked so hard to create.
“He became a member of the PDP and lived and breathed the party until his death. Although he had friends from both parties, he was never an unprincipled politician who switched parties on the spur of the moment.
“As a result, we encourage all members of Senator Kashamu’s political family to ignore the reports of the few renegades.
“We also want to take this opportunity to reaffirm that the Kashamu political family is still in the PDP, and we stand by the “Abuja Accord” signed on March 25, 2021, as supervised by the National Reconciliation & Strategy Committee headed by Dr. Bukola Saraki.”
