A former member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Olatubosun Oladele, has reacted to claim by Oyo state chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, that he was among those who left the party in the build up to the 2019 general elections.
In an advertorial placed yesterday by the party, the name of the former information commissioner had been listed among names of those who left the party owing to crisis that engulfed the party.
Oladele, OYOINSIGHT.COM recalls, had been denied the party’s return ticket in last year’s election owing to what the leadership calls rotational system among local government areas that form Irepo/Oorelope/Olorunsogo federal constituency.
Rather than defect from the party, Oladele, who was a former youth leader of Alliance for Democracy, AD, and the Action Congress, AC, rallied round his supporters to elect Hon. Olumide Ojerinde, who was handed the party’s ticket.
In a chat with OYOINSIGHT.COM, Oladele who has now returned to his law practice in Lagos said that the APC’s claim was untrue.
“This not correct, I never left the APC and I never contested any election against my party at any point. I also never supported any opposition party candidate against my party. I challenge anyone with contrary record or proof to make it open. For me to join another party must be on my own volition and not because some people within our party wished I had taken that perfidious step. I have a track record in the progressives family right from the days of AD till APC. I have been in the state executive of the AD, AC, ACN and APC and I have never jumped ship.
“It is interesting and ironic to know that some of those accusing me now of having left the APC that I helped to build in Oyo State now were at different times between 1999 and 2015 in various parties having moved houses politically in the past
“The only thing that will heal political wounds within our dear party and put us on course to reclaim Oyo State is genuine reconciliation rather than malicious fabrications of half-truths. It is on record that if I had left the party, another party would have produced the candidate to represent my constituency at the House of Representatives by now. After all, I remain the only candidate of the progressive to have won the 3 local government of Irepo, Oorelope and Olorunsogo federal constituency since 1999 till date,” the Igbeti-born politician added.
