Former Kwara State gubernatorial candidate under the All Progressives Congress, Mr. Dele Belgore (SAN) has decamped to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party from the APC.
He made the move alongside other PDP chieftain such as Iyiola Oyedepo, Bunmi Olusona, Idris Mahmoud, Sa’ad Omoiya, A. Isa Afon, Agboola Ismail, Toyin Ayinla, Funsho Sa’ad, Atanda Soro, Khadijat Abdullateef, and Ganiyu Onikere at his campaign office in Ilorin.
The reason for their move was connected to the handing over of the APC party structure in the state to Senator Bukola Saraki, who supported the PDP in the last elections were the APC came second.
Belgore said, “Hope had risen that with the birth of APC, our struggle for socioeconomic development of our dear state which we began in 2010, would be better served under a stronger and broader political platform.”
“But that hope suddenly evaporated very quickly. An alliance of those who yearn for change and development and those who desire to maintain the status quo of oppression and denial of opportunity was suddenly foisted upon us.”
“By that alliance, the politics of patronage, of denial of merit-based opportunity, of running the state like personal assets, of deploying public wealth for the benefit of a select few, of selling the state assets to shadowy private concerns was given a new life.”
“But it is not just about pitching of the voices for change against the forces of retrogression. It was also about the manner in which it was done.”
“We said yes, anyone could be admitted to the party, but we insisted that it would be undemocratic, inequitable and even contrary to the very idea of change that APC claims it stands for, to automatically hand over the party structures to new entrants, especially when those entrants are at the commanding heart of the oppression and arrested development of Kwara and its people.
“Not only does this arrangement confer the party structure on these new entrants, it is pre-determined to ensure that they continue, no matter the pretence of internal election, to control it.
“Thus by this ultimately self-defeating arrangement, APC had determined the scores of the game even before kickoff. The same ugly trend occurred in Kano, Sokoto and some other states.”
“APC’s leadership had in seeking to satisfy a few, alienated the rank and file, and to many, the soul of the party.
“The owner of a home needs not be displaced to give any false sense of friendship to a stranger.
“Our people do not believe that people are made for a platform. Rather they believe that platforms are made for the people.
“No positive change is possible where we are to coexist with the same elements that the people of Kwara want to dislodge.
“To our supporters and political independents, APC has let us down. We have therefore decided not to be part of an arrangement that puts us in the same ship driven by the oppressors.
“We are therefore joining the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which – as fate now has it – has shed the very core of the liabilities that made our people run away from it.”
He said his group would join hands with the PDP who were unjustly shut out because of their progressive bent to endear the party to the people of Kwara State.
He added, “Together we will work to advocate and bring about economic liberation, equal opportunity for all and positive development to our dear state and its people.
“We join forces to break the shackles of oppression and restore our state back to is former glory.
“It is never easy to leave a party that one has nurtured to such an enviable position, but the reality is that APC by its undemocratic stance and scant regard for the yearnings of the people and supporters has strayed from the path of progress and development – that is the core of our political existence in Kwara.
“We remain true to this cause and its sanctity limits our affiliations.
“My supporters and I therefore call on all those who wish Kwara State well, both within and beyond Kwara, indigenes and non-indigenes, to support us in the PDP to fight this just and noble cause so as to bring a brighter day to the lives of our people and to renew their positive aspirations,” Belgore said.