Date: 2018-03-19

The All Progressives Congress in Kwara State has said no member of the party defected to the opposition Peoples Democratic Paward at Alanamu ward in Ilorin West local government area of Kwara State.

In a statement signed by its publicity secretary, Alhaji Sulyman Buhari, the party said the claim that 800 members of APC defected to the crises-ridden is misleading and outright falsehood.

What happened was that the North Central Zonal leadership of the PDP visited Kwara State and a factional chairman of the PDP in Kwara State, Mr Iyiola Oyedepo decided to entertain his guests with stage-managed and choreographed political drama of defection. Indeed, there was no defection.

Dr Hanafi Alabere who was said to have led the defection is not one of us. The man is also not part of us. The drama of defection anchored by Iyiola Oyedepo would have made huge sense if it portrayed the movement of PDP members from one faction to the other within the PDP.

The APC wishes to declare that Kwara PDP lacks pull factor. Therefore, there couldn't have been defection of APC members to the PDP.

The general public should be reminded that the chairmanship seat of Mr Iyiola Oyedepo is still subject of factional battles. As admitted by Mr Iyiola Oyedepo himself, the PDP is still facing critical moments of crises. The party lacks direction. The party is also bereft of responsible and competent leadership. Thus, the directionless and crises-ridden PDP has no value to add to the quality of governance and development of Kwara State.

The APC frowns at some irresponsible and false assertions made by Mr Iyiola Oyedepo. The party believes Mr Oyedepo has veered off the lane of politicking and resulted to character assassination and defamatory labelling of our party leaders. Mr Oyedepo and his cohorts should be warned as defamatory labelling of our party leaders will not be tolerated in the run up to the 2019 general election.

We wish to reassure the good people of Kwara State that the Alhaji Abdulfatai Ahmed-led administration and all elected representatives of the party led by the Senate President, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki are effectively and efficiently discharging constitutional duties toward the upliftment of Kwara State and her people.