‘Unknown members’ | ‘Shaky platform’ — LP, south-west group clash over defection to APC

A group, with persons claiming to be members of the Labour Party (LP) in the south-west region, has announced its defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

One Banjo Omotoso, who identified himself as the leader of the group, announced the development in Akure, the Ondo capital.

Omotoso claimed that the group defected because the LP doesn’t have the required structure to win the election.

“Labour Party presently is a shaky platform for anybody to contest. Labour Party is a failure platform for anybody to contest. I don’t know Peter Obi and I’m less concerned about him but I’m concerned about those who are celebrating the Labour Party mediocre within Nigeria,” he said.

“In view of this, we leaders of the Labour Party in the south-west have decided to leave the party because we have a lot of mediocres there and what they are looking for is money. They are not ready to serve Nigeria.

“Labour Party is not ready to serve Nigeria, that is why we decided to leave the party and come to the APC. I collapsed the structure of the party in Ekiti state.”

Dayo Adeyeye, national coordinator of the Southwest Agenda for Asiwaju (SWAGA 2023), received the members of the group and described the development as a boost to the APC.

‘THEY ARE UNKNOWN MEMBERS’

Reacting to the defection, Akin Osuntokun, the director-general of the Obi-Datti presidential campaign council, said the group was unknown to the LP.

“There is a report in newspapers today that the Labour Party in the southwest announced its dissolution into the APC,” Osuntokun said.

“One thing that bothers me around this period is that there are actually people really choosing to accept some things that are presumably and on their face value.

“Of all the names purportedly listed as the members dissolving into APC are unknown to us, therefore the press should not encourage them in these kind of missions.”