By Oluwakemi Ishola
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State has received a boost following the resolve of Senator Olufemi Lanlehin, political heavyweights and over 30,000 members of the Africa Democratic Party (ADC) to dump the party.
The decision of the 2019 governorship candidate of the ADC and his teeming supporters to dump the party was reached at an expanded meeting held on Monday at the Ibadan residence of Olufemi Lanlehin.
The former federal lawmaker briefed the attendees on the series of reconciliatory meetings he had attended with the top echelons of the APC. “The reconciliation process by the National Reconciliation Committee of the APC headed by His Excellency, Governor of Jigawa State, Alh. Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, supported by four other governors, including Ekiti State’s Governor Kayode Fayemi, is clearly succeeding in its given task,” Lanlehin noted.
While assuring loyalists drawn from the 33 Local Government Areas of the state who had thronged his Adabeji residence for the meeting, Lanlehin reminded them of his unfailing desire to always prioritize the interest of the common man, and that in all the steps he has taken thus far, remaining pro-people has remained centrepiece.
Speaker after speaker which included Rev. Ezekiel Adeniran, Chief E. O. Laoye, Hon. Bili Ajana, Yeye Yetunde Ajibola, Hon. Gaphar Ojetola, Hon. Habib Balogun, Alh. Muraina Kakako, and others, eulogised Senator Lanlehin, for his unselfish and accommodating approach to politics, praying posterity to be kind to him.
Similarly, representatives drawn from the 33 Local Governments who spoke one after the other, endorsed the move, noting in their submissions that Lanlehin’s return to the APC should best be termed an homecoming, having begun his politics from the progressive camp, from his days in the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), one of the legacy parties of the APC, aside from being a scion of High Chief S. O. Lanlehin, a core Awoist and National Treasurer of the defunct Action Group, hence associating with members already on board in the party, should ordinarily not be difficult, but a family affair.
A motion for the eventual movement of Lanlehin and the entire structure of the Oyo State African Democratic Congress (ADC), enmasse into the All Progressives Congress (APC) was subsequently moved, seconded and adopted, while no one, after calls for such, if any, raised objection.
A chieftain of the Party from Oke Ogun zone, Hon. Wahab Shile told the Pacesetter News that Senator Lanlehin has more than 30,000 loyalists across the 33LGAs who were ready to follow him back to the APC.
Present at the meeting included Oyo State Executive Committee of the ADC, led by Rev. Ezekiel Adeniran, some candidates of the party in the 2019 polls.
Other chieftains present were Chief Sunday Ajadi (Abeebo) from Ogbomoso, Alh. Rafiu Afuku from Iseyin, Alh. Adebayo Waheed (Adwas) from Atisbo, Erelu Funke Olayanju, Ibarapa East and Dr. Akintola, Ibarapa North; Hon. Adedokun JP from Ibadan North, Alh. Suara Ogunyemi from Ibadan Northeast, Hon. Adeoye Sobaloju (Lord Moro), Ibadan Southwest, Otunba Bode Ashiru from Ibadan Southwest, Otunba Kunle Folarin, AFIJIO, Alhaja Omotunde Lawal from Egbeda, Hon. Tiri Olowoake, Oluyole, Hon. Adekunle Adeolu (Ultimate) Ido, Hon. Gbenga Aluko from Ibadan Southwest and Hon. Kayode Oladele from Ibadan North.
Hon. Tolani Adigun, Hon. Salami Dikko, Hon. Sunday Babatunde and hundreds of SOLAN supporters.
