Dotun Babayemi, a PDP stalwart in Osun State, intervened quickly to save the party from losing more than 300 members to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Boluwaduro Local Government Area of the state.
PDP members from ten wards in the local government area, led by Honorable Abdulraman Lawrence Famodimu, who were upset, had decided not to join the ruling party this week since the APC leadership had made provisions for them to be received.
Babayemi, along with some party leaders, stopped the planned defection after learning that it was primarily coming from the majority of his supporters in the council area. This prevented the defection from proceeding.
Speaking at a formal please-don’t-leave-PDP meeting over the weekend at the group leader’s home in Otan Ayegbaju, Babayemi urged the party’s disgruntled members in the council area who were considering defecting to the APC or any other party to change their minds.
“I felt really uneasy when I learned that a few of our members in this local government were planning to defect. I actually ran down to beg of you folks, leaving everything I was doing in Abuja, and I thank God that you have reasoned with us. None of the people in our party should leave. Instead, we desire an increase in harvest and an influx of new party members. At the end of the day, I promise you won’t be forgotten,” he remarked.
According to Babayemi, had they followed through on their threat to leave the PDP, it could have had an impact on the party’s prospects in the upcoming July 16 governor’s race. He emphasized that “politics is a game of numbers, even one is many, and that’s why instead of decreasing we should always strive to be increasing on all fronts.”
He insisted that all hands must be on deck for the party to win in the polls rather than leaving the PDP, especially as the state’s governorship election approaches.
According to Babayemi, the APC has nothing but misery to give the party’s disgruntled members and others in the state, making their demands to stay in the PDP all the more urgent.
Alhaji Rasaq Oyelami, a member of the state Caretaker Committee, Dr. Romoke Edu, and Dr. Ayantunji were among those who equally spoke at the meeting.
Prior to this, the Ward 5 Chairman, Honorable Ajibade Bamidele, voiced his strong dissatisfaction with the way the party was being managed at both the local and state levels, while the former Women Leader of the party in the local government area, Mrs. Bola Awoleye, expressed her displeasure with the treatment being meted out to them by the Adeleke group.
In his submission, Famodimu stated that they would have defected from the PDP to the APC this week due to exclusion by their party, “especially with the winner-take-all mentality of the Adeleke group,” if it weren’t for Dotun Babayemi and other party leaders in the state acting quickly.
“I want to thank Omooba Dotun Babayemi and other leaders of the party for their passionate pleasuring us not to leave the PDP as we had originally intended. “Let me confess to this gathering that the stage was already set for our defection and we would have been received into the APC by its leadership on Monday or thereabouts,” the gang leader said in an admission.
He gave his word that they had listened to the requests made by the PDP leaders and would remain in the party to support its candidacy in the upcoming gubernatorial race.
