An Ogun state Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain and former Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Sarafa Tunji Isola, revealed on Friday why he dumped the opposition party for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
According to reports monitored in The Nation newspaper, Mr Ishola disclosed that the unending legal battle in the Ogun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was the reason he left the party to join the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He said the protracted legal tussle between different factions in the party is the reason he moved the ruling APC.
The report stated that the Baba Adinni of Yorubaland said he could no longer cope with the PDP in Ogun State which kept doing the same thing the same way, believing that a different outcome would emerge.
Mr Ishola who was also Secretary to the Ogun State Government from 2003 – 2007 under the platform of PDP also recalled in his statement that it was the protracted legal battle and factionalisation of PDP that led to its defeat in 2011 general elections in the state.
The former minister in the said statement made in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State noted that he arrived at the decision to leave PDP after wide consultations with his loyalists and associates.
Mr Ishola who also journeyed to Labour Party and later went back to PDP before the 2015 general elections said; “I am leaving PDP because of the unending legal battle in Ogun state; this leading to a protracted crisis in the party.
“You will recall that the same legal battle was responsible for the failure of the PDP in Ogun State in Year 2011 general elections and the electoral defeat of the party in Year 2015.
“It is very clear that If you continue to do the same thing, same way, you can’t get a different result. Moreover, an intractable crisis less than one year to general elections will spell doom for the party.
“Having decided to leave PDP, I embarked on wide consultations across the country, particularly in Ogun Central Senatorial District on the next line of action.
“Across the nation, the general opinion of my associates is that a former minister should play politics in a party with national spread. In addition, all politics is local and the opinion of leaders and various political stakeholders in Ogun Central is to join APC.
“The reason they adduced is the face – lift of Abeokuta, the state capital and the infrastructural development of Ogun State by the APC government led by the Senator Ibikunle Amosun-led administration,” Ishola stated.
