Gbemisola Saraki, Osunbor defect from PDP to APC

Top members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have been leaving the party after its loss at the parliamentary and presidential election of March 28; and on Tuesday, it was the turn of Osarhiemen Osunbor, who was the governor of Edo state between May 2007 and November 2008, and Gbemisola Saraki (pictured left), a gubernatorial aspirant in Kwara and one-time senator to move to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Speaking at a reception in honour of Osunbor in Benin city, capital of the state, Adams Oshiomhole, governor of Edo state, promised to join hands with Osubor for the development of the state.

“I will be working with a respected professor of law like you.  We thank God for what he has used us to achieve,” he said.

However, Gbemisola, who had directed her followers to vote for APC during the presidential election, confirmed that she has now pitched her tent with the APC in a statement made available to journalists on Tuesday.

She was among the aspirants who lost the ticket of the PDP to Simeon Ajibola, the gubernatorial candidate of PDP in Kwara.

“I come before you for a formal declaration of our move to the All Progressives Congress (APC),” the statement read.

“This is not to underplay the reality that we have joined the APC a fortnight ago, just before the presidential and national assembly elections, but I believe I owe you the obligation to formally announce this move to you as a deep respect for your love and your support of the GRS Movement over the year.

“This decision is a product of wide consultations with members of the GRS political family that cut across all the sixteen (16) local government areas of the state on the one hand and the leadership of APC on the other.

“It was in furtherance of this that on the eve of the presidential and national assembly elections, I had asked all my supporters to troop out and vote for all the candidates of the APC.

“Let me seize this opportunity to thank our supporters for heeding the clarion call and congratulate them as well as all members of the APC for a historic victory.”

Gbemisola said the PDP had lost the values that it was known for when she joined the party, and it did not encourage the participation of women in politics.

“When we joined Kwara PDP, it was for the main reason of enlarging these inalienable values and re-engineering the processes of leadership through the party in order to mirror the true aspirations of Kwarans,” the statement read.

“Considering the circumstance of the party at the state level, we knew we had to work harder and make sacrifices to deliver a party that would represent the yearning of our people.

However, the ensuing pattern of animosity within PDP was strongly placing our ideology on the cross hair of political attacks by elements within the party. Furthermore, the party was evidently hijacked from evolving into a political force that can accommodate the broad interests of the people, but allowed to tarry to the selfish ambitions of some elements within its fold.

“The last straw, however, was the failure of the PDP to respect the place of women in politics as a basis of an inclusive template of leadership.

“Like no other time in our collective struggle for equity and fair play have women suffered so much relegation in the political system in the country and especially in the state.

“The APC has shown that it believes in ensuring that women are treated with respect and dignity and assisted to excel in the political arena as shown by the emergence of the Taraba state gubernatorial candidate.

“We therefore have come to the sad realisation that the seeming marginalisation of women in the PDP is deeply embedded in the party system and leadership and all attempts to cause a change from within have been met with brick walls and blatant prejudices against women leadership.

“The choice was therefore clear – a constricted, backward vision of Kwara, which the opposition represents, or a bold step into the future that guarantees fairness, justice and hope.

“Thus, the move from the PDP into the APC was an easy decision for us, considering our history with PDP and our vision for our future.”