The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ekiti State has said it has no regret if the former Governor Segun Oni has truly left the party, saying, “We will win the election without him”.
It spoke through its state Publicity Secretary, Raphael Adeyanju, who said, “If actually he (Oni) has left the party, I would call that good development for the PDP because with his presence, he has been a liability. When he left, those who left with him never returned with him.
“He returned to this party recently. That means he came to pick the party ticket. We have no regret, let him go. If he had not returned, we would have had our candidate and won the election. Without him, we will win on June 18. We wish him the best of luck.”
Oni had defected from the PDP, where he contested for the party’s governorship ticket for the June 18 election in the state.
Confirming the defection, a former Commissioner for Information, Lanre Ogunsuyi, who was the Director of Media in the Segun Oni Campaign Organisation, said, “We have just said bye-bye to the PDP and ‘oga’ (Segun Oni) thanked all the people that worked with him and dissolved all the structures that ran the purported primary in PDP.”
Oni was defeated by Bisi Kolawole, who is now PDP candidate, in the party’s governorship primary which held in Ado Ekiti on January 26.
The former PDP governor, who left the party for the APC in 2014, had returned in 2019.
Although Ogunsuyi did not disclose the party which Oni was defecting to, insinuations are rife that Oni had concluded arrangement to fly the flag of All Progressives Grand Alliance for the governorship election.
The former campaign spokesperson said, “What we have now is a confluence of people called Segun Oni Movement. By next (this) week, we should have sorted ourselves out and know where we (party) we are going in line with the Independent National Electoral Commission timetable. What is certain is that we have left the PDP, but we are not certain about where we are going”.
Reacting to speculations that Oni had joined APGA, Ogunsuyi said, “It is normal to speculate about politicians, especially a politician of Segun Oni’s stature. He is a former governor and he has just left the PDP. What is certain is that we have left the PDP, but we are not certain about where we are going”.
The former commissioner said that Oni left “because the PDP is a cult. Segun Oni has been consistent in the search for truth, truth in Nigerian politics means you will be persecuted and all that has been happening. When you are consistently in the search for truth and fair play, those things have no value in Nigerian politics”.
A former PDP State Publicity Secretary, Jackson Adebayo, who corroborated Ogunsuyi’s claim, said, “We will unveil the name of our new party by Tuesday.
Adebayo said, “The people of Ekiti have decided that they want Segun Oni on any platform. And he hearkened to their calls. In fact, it was the image of Segun Oni that has been promoting the PDP in Ekiti State. And once the PDP has decided to kill itself, we have to take a bow and leave.
“Ekiti people will not leave Segun Oni alone to go like that because they can’t see any other person that can deliver what Oni has been doing for them. So, it is the voice of the people. As it is now, both the PDP and the All Progressives Congress will be contesting against the people of Ekiti. And the symbol of the people of Ekiti State is Segun Oni,” he said.
