The governorship candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) during the 2011 election, Mr Muhammad Dele Belgore has defected to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
This follows the trend of defection by politicians in Kwara state from one political party to another.
At a rally in his campaign office in Ilorin, Mr Belgore noted that his defection from APC to PDP was borne out of the handing over of political leadership of the state by the national leadership of APC to new entrants without recourse to the feelings of the foundation members.
This decision, he noted, is undemocratic and contrary to the ideals of the APC which was to effect positive change in governance, hence his decision to pitch tent with the PDP after consultation with relevant political stakeholders.
He promised to collaborate with like minds to remove the shackles of poverty from the state and urged his supporters to continue supporting him in the new party.
Stating reasons for his defection to the PDP, Belgore emphasised that, “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 need not be displaced to give any false sense of friendship to a stranger, he said.
