It is no longer news that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Kwara State have been at each other's jugular, fighting for the soul of the North-Central state.

They started as far back as 2010 when the warm-up for 2011 general elections began and as the gladiators emerged and the show gathered momentum, fight of words and name-calling became the order of the day. The ACN, ever since, has remained the strongest opposition, which became quite pronounced at both pre and post-election time.

However, barely one year after all litigations against the victory of the PDP in the governorship election had been dispensed with, and which the ACN lost, divisions set in within the latter.

This manifested openly late last month when a handful of its chieftains who are prominent in a faction came up with an idea that they had on their own sacked the government of a caretaker committee headed by Deacon Kayode Olawepo, who had been running the affairs of the party for two years, and replaced it with a committee appointed by the faction. This action naturally generated serious controversy which has polarised the party.

Two of their leaders, Alhaji Lai Mohhammed, the National Publicity Secretary of the party and Mr. Dele Belgore, the ACN 2011 governorship candidate in the state were said to have maintained separate camps.

At the end, 2,500 members of the party, mainly from the camp of Dele Belgore in Ilorin, the state capital reportedly defected to the PDP. A source said the ruling PDP is behind the cracks on the wall of the ACN, using the powers and machinery of government at its disposal. ACN had also early in the year accused the PDP of working towards a disintegration of the former, an allegation which the PDP denied.

Not only that, it is believed in some quarters that Belgore who contested against Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed in 2011 is certainly the man to beat because he will be the strongest opponent any day.

That the 2,500 members who defected from the party two weeks ago from ACN to PDP were allegedly followers of Belgore therefore, would not come as a surprise.

Meanwhile, the Belgore camp has reacted to claims that the PDP has been depleting the ACN in a gale of defection. First, the ex-governorship candidate through his media aide, Rafiu Ajakaiye, said in a signed statement that it was "a show of shame and admission of failure claims by PDP and its government that 2,500 ACN members defected because 'Belgore failed to give them employment.'

"We deny the defection story and ask whether it was the duty of the opposition to provide job opportunities for the people or the government which controls the machinery of the state and is charged with the welfare of citizens. Both the government and the ruling PDP have repeatedly taunted the opposition on the defection which the ACN insisted was another lie from the PDP and its government."

The statement added, "Our initial reaction is that nothing, however shameful and debasing, is beyond a government now notorious for its lies and chicanery and whose every claim now faces integrity test, even from little children. "The whole celebrations of the alleged defection raise questions about the seriousness, competence and thought process of the initiators of such self-defeating claims.

We have been watching with amusement how the Kwara State Government which claims to be performing and is popular is wasting public funds in celebrating in the newspapers and on television, the sponsored and contrived defection of some fictitious members of the opposition party. They even went to the ridiculous extent of sponsoring a statement that Mohammed Dele Belgore (SAN) promised the defectors employment, but he has reneged on that promise and that was the reason for their defection.

"Indeed, the celebration of so-called defection is a pitiable show by the PDP-led government and it raises a number of questions. If the opposition does not exist in Kwara, as the government has repeatedly stated over the years, where did the so-called defectors numbering 2,500 from one single local council come from?

Assuming even that there was in fact a real decampment, now that unemployment has been cited as the reason for it, what is the government doing to address that? "Meanwhile, there are numerous allegations of financial scandals by the immediate past and current PDP led government being (or are yet to be) investigated and the list continues to grow by the day.

The government should keep itself busy in improving the lives of the people and in running an open and clean government. It should stop chasing shadows and wasting public funds by bringing itself into further ridicule and odium by self-defeating and embarrassing media displays," the Belgore camp charged.

In his reaction to Belgore's response, the PDP State secretary, Prince Yemi Afolayan said, "The attention of our party has been drawn to the tactless and belated response of the candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in the last gubernatorial election in the state, Muhammed Dele Belgore, SAN, to the defection of a number of his followers to the PDP. Belgore may have been frustrated by the depletion of his camp at a time he is battling to take over his party's machinery.

Rather than treading on his known path of abuse and name calling, the PDP had expected Belgore to deny knowing Abdulazeez Kasim and Titilayo Ojo, secretary and women leader of Muhammed Dele Belgore Forum, respectively. He dares not do that because he knows them well. "By the defectors' confession, Belgore must have, in his desperation to rule the state, a factor that is also today at the root of the crises in his party, deliberately deceived them with employment he knew he could not offer. The PDP refuses to join issues any longer with Belgore on this matter because we have the pictures of the defectors as well as their ACN cards and party register from their ward. We advise Belgore to desist from deceit and selfdelusion as kwarans are wiser," the PDP scribe hit back. Meanwhile, while Alhaji Lai Mohammed appears not to be dragged into the fight between the state's branch of the ACN and the PDP as if he is not concerned, some of his members point fingers at him for allegedly fanning the embers of the internal crisis while cleverly staying away in the name of running the affairs of the party at the national level, leaving the home front to boil. Some members told Sunday Mirror that their plight is simply a product of a supremacy battle between Mohammed and Belgore. Another source within the party informed that while Belgore feels his candidature in 2011 should be automatically renewed come 2015, Mohammed feels otherwise. Whether the national spokesman of ACN is also preparing underground for himself or not was still not clear as at press time as he could not be reached. But some of his supporters who spoke with our correspondent under condition of anonymity denied allegation that he is engaged in some cold war with Belgore. However, while the issue of the caretaker committee which became immediate cause of crisis within the party was still being sorted out, the national body of the CAN on Thursday dropped the bombshell when it formally announced the dissolution of the Olawepo State Caretaker Committee.