BY DAPO AKINREFON

One man’s meat is anotherman’s poison, so original members of Labour Party, LP have said in their denunciation of the take over of the party by Opeyemi Bamidele and his supporters.

It was as such not surprising that the LP over the weekend suffered a major set back when scores of its members dumped the party for the All Progressives Congress (APC). Their grouse was that the national leadership of the party offered the party to Bamidele without considering the interest of the original founders of the party in the state.

The defectors, who were led by a former deputy chairman of the party, Mr. Ojo Ademola, also had Mr. Adedamola Tayo, Hon. Ajiboye, Ojumoola Olayemi, Comrade Sola Ajayi, Mr. Peter Ademilua and Faleyimu Ademilua as defectors.

Speaking on behalf of the defectors, the former deputy chairman of the party, said those parading as members of the Labour Party in Ekiti State were a few disgruntled PDP members whom Bamidele brought with him when he joined the LP.

He maintained that original members of the party had all left due to the commando-like manner in which Bamidele hijacked the party structure.

Ademola said he was shocked when the LP governorship candidate, who complained of being muscled in the defunct ACN, joined the LP and out of desperation to contest the governorship election in the state “threw all caution to the wind by subverting democratic principles to install his cronies who were hitherto PDP members as executive members of the Labour Party.”

He explained that they chose to join the APC due to the unrivaled performance of the incumbent governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, who “is the only governorship candidate in the state who has demonstrated seriousness through the public presentation of his second term manifesto.”

The other candidates, he said, have been busy trying to mudsling the governor and have not been able to tell the electorate in specific terms what they would do better if elected.
He said “as far as I am concerned, they have been providing us comic relief. The other thing that I notice they have been doing is going about with imported thugs to unleash terror on Ekiti people”.

Receiving the defectors, the Interim Chairman of APC in Ekiti State, Chief Jide Awe, promised that they would be treated as equals with other members of the party.