BY DAYO JOHNSON
LESS than a week after agreeing on a consensus candidate for the Senatorial seat in the Northern district area of Ondo State in the ruling Labour Party, one of the aspirant a former minister, Dr Olu Agunloye yesterday decamped from the party to the ACN.

Agunloye who is the former Power and Steel Minister told newsmen  that he opted out of the party “in order to pursue his political aspiration in the area by bringing the needed change to the people of the area.

Stakeholders in the senatorial area had jointly with Agunloye agreed to a consensus which picked Prof. Ajayi Boroffice while Agunloye was offered the ticket of the House of Representatives.

But, Agunloye opted out of the joint agreement, saying that he believed that he will be more relevant in the senate.

Reacting to the development, the Information Commissioner Ranti Akerele said the cross carpeting “cannot but be a loss to the party because he is a valued member of the LP before now. But l am sure he must have done so in exercise of his full right as a Nigerian to associate with whoever he wants.

Akerele added that Agunloye is a man of honour and the party is sure that he would soon return.

But Agunloye told newsmen that “I am committed to a change which I belief is paramount for Nigeria and I am bordered about Nigeria where I went to a school that is better than my children are going into. I am bordered about a country that we have at the moment where 200 youth corpers finish every year and they don’t have employment.

“ I am bordered about Nigeria where the notion of service is not citizen centered. I am bordered about a country when you look at the selection process; it is such you don’t get the best people to be there.”

“I found out at the end of the day I am not able to put that change on the platform of LP then I must look for another platform. Getting that changes to be pushed through ACN is like coming back home, it is in consonant with the alignment been done in the Southwest, it in consonant with the alignment which is been done to Yoruba people.

“It is not about dumping one party for another; it is about looking for where my own contribution toward this changed can be realized. The hierarchy of the party in order to stabilize itself required some sacrifices to be made. I am one of those sacrifices as demanded by the hierarchy of the LP to step down so that the consensus candidate can come up. It is an internal thing to reduce acrimony and crisis within the party.

He said further  |”I have my own agenda about change which I want to put through, stepping down for him only mean to me pursue this change under this platform. If I get another platform where I may be able to contribute my own quota I can pursue it. I have spent the last few years working in the six local governments.

Receiving him, the party state Chairman Mrs Jumoke Anifowose said the party in the state has received a boot by the coming of the former Minister.

Anifowose added that his joining the ACN is the beginning of good things to come in the Party