11th June, 2010
Thousands of supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ayobo-Ipaja Local Council Development Area, LCDA, Lagos, Nigeria, have decamped to the Action Congress, AC, at an elaborate ceremony held at the AC’s meeting ground, Ipaja.
The PDP members led by Mr. M.O. Ajibeshin, an elder and secretary of ward H of the PDP and Alhaja Sariyat Ayilara announced that they were decamping enmass because they were deprived of the dividends of democracy in their old party.
Declaring his loyalty to the Action Congress, Mr. Adebeshin said he had been a progressive all his life until 1999 when he decided to pitch tent with the PDP, saying he regarded his 11 years sojourn in the party as a waste of time.
On his part, one of the decampees who was at a time a member of the then Alliance for Democracy, AD, Hon. A.O Sopehin said: “We warned them in the PDP before it degenerated to this level, but they turned deaf ears.â€
Welcoming the thousands of PDP members from the five wards in Ayobo-Ipaja LCDA to the AC fold, the chairperson of the party in the area, Chief (Mrs.) Toyin Onileyan said they are welcome back home as most of them were initially members of the party before crossing carpet.
She promised them of a better future in their new party, saying that it was good they retraced their steps on time, especially at a time when it was obvious that the PDP had nothing good to offer them.
Mrs. Onileyan called on all old members of the party to see the new entrants as their brothers and sisters and should work together for the progress of AC in Lagos in particular and Nigeria in general.
In his own address at the occasion, the chairman, Ayobo- Ipaja LCDA, prince Bisi Yusuf congratulated them for retracing their steps from suffering, hunger, stagnation and poverty, adding that in AC, there is no discrimination but discipline.
“You have removed yourself from bondage and tentacles of PDP which to us means People Destroying People or People Deceiving People,†the council boss said.