By GBENGA ARIYIBI,

Ado Ekiti – Former governor of Ekiti State, Mr  Ayodele Fayose, formally defected to the Labour Party[ LP], yesterday, vowing  to chase  the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) from the state in the 2011 elections. The national chairman of the LP, Mr  Dan Nwayanwu, gave Fayose a clean bill of health, saying the former governor was not a criminal as his opponents  tend  to paint him.

Fayose who was speaking in Ado Ekiti, at a political rally where he formally decamped from the PDP to LP, promised that his new party would give all members equal opportunities to excel.

The former governor, who spoke amidst a  huge crowd of  supporters and associates  drawn from all the 16 local government areas of the state, equally promised that LP  would not discriminate against any member, nor impose candidates on the people.

Fayose set  ablaze  the PDP umbrella, which  symbolized  his  severance of ties with his former party that produced him as  governor of Ekiti  in the 2003 elections.

He was   full of praises for  the national leadership of the LP, pledging not to disappoint the party.

Fayose said his decision to dump PDP was informed  by what he described as  the abysmal performance of PDP  at all levels of governance in the country, noting that PDP epitomised darkness.

LP in Ekiti State, Nwanyanwu, who inaugurated the new executive of LP in Ekiti State,  said he was happy to witness the ceremony.