Over 1,000 members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and those from the Africa Democratic Congress (ADC) in Kabba/Bunu Local Government Area of Kogi State at the weekend defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

An elated Senator Smart Adeyemi, who is the Director- General, APC Bello/Onoja Governorship Campaign Organisation, receiving the defectors in Kabba and Okebunkun, said Kogi was moving closer to becoming a one-party state.

He was joined by House of Assembly Speaker Prince Mathew Kolawole during one of the outings yesterday where he received over 1,000 returning members of the Audu/Faleke Group, who collapsed their structure in the ADC into the APC.

They were led by a community leader, Chief Emmanuel Olowodola, with members of the executive of the ADC in the areas.

Adeyemi said the recent defection of other parties’ bigwigs to the APC was a measure of the growing confidence in the party.

He described the coming of Olowodola to the APC, close to the governorship election, as a big plus for the party.

Adeyemi described Olowodola, a former Post Master-General of the Federation, as an accomplished politician who would add value to the party.

Said he: “People are moving to our party because of the growing confidence in the APC. This is the party to be; this is the party that means well for the people. This is the party of development.”

Kolawole said the gale of defection in Kogi West Senatorial District has turned the opposition PDP to a dead horse.

“Tell me, what remains of PDP? Very soon, we will obliterate PDP from the state’s political map,” he said.

Kolawole said the defectors would be accorded the rights and privileges of existing members.

Olowodola said he was delighted to be back in the APC fold with his supporters, adding that he would do his best by mobilising members to improve the electoral fortunes of his new party.

He hoped that the APC would win the November 16 governorship election and urged members to work for its success.

On Saturday, former Chairman, Kabba/Bunu Council Area and former House of Assembly member, Nathaniel Taiwo, with hundreds of PDP members, defected to the APC in Okebukun, where they were received into the party by Adeyemi, who handed over the APC broom symbol to them.

Kolawole on Saturday led a motorcade rally across Kabba town in support of Governor Yahaya Bello’s second term bid.

The rally, which began at the party’s secretariat, ended at the palace of Obaro of Kabba, Oba Solomon Owoniyi, where the APC members received royal blessings.

•Text (excluding headline) courtesy of The Nation

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