Ekiti 2022: I’m Done With PDP – Ex-Gov Oni Declares
- May join APGA for guber ticket
BY SEGUN ADEBAYO – With scathing allegations of being cheated out of the governorship ticket, Former Ekiti State Governor, Segun Oni on Saturday confirmed that he is done being a member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
According to insiders’ reports, in dumping the PDP ahead of this year’s Ekiti governorship elections slated for Saturday, 18 June, the former governor left with a sizeable number of party members and supporters
This marks the second time Engineer Oni would be quitting the PDP family, the first being in 2014, shortly before the State governorship election.
However, there are no indications which party the former governor may be pitching tent with to pursue his political ambition, even as there are widespread speculations about the possibility of joining forces with the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to contest the gubernatorial poll in June.
Speaking on the latest development, Spokesman of Segun Oni Movement (SOM), Mr Adebayo Jackson, who confirmed the development to newsmen in Ado-Ekiti on Saturday, said the Oni’s resignation was with immediate effect.
He said the decision of Oni and thousands of his supporters to abandon the PDP was reached at a stakeholders’ meeting in Oni’s residence in Ifaki-Ekiti, Ido/Osi Local Government Area of the state.
The SOM’s image maker said their principla only yielded to pressures from the overwhelming majority of Ekiti people who are desirous of ensuring he returns to the Ekiti Government House under any political party.
Jackson, a former PDP State Publicity Secretary, said the former governor is leaving PDP with a sizeable number of members, saying; “Engineer Segun Oni has finally resigned from PDP. All the people of Ekiti have decided that they want Segun Oni on any platform. And he had harkened to the calls.
“In fact, it was the image of Oni that has been promoting the image of PDP in Ekiti State. And once the PDP has decided to kill itself, we have to take a bow and leave. Ekiti people will not leave Oni alone to go like that because they can’t see any other person that can deliver what Oni has been doing for them.
“So, it is the voice of the people and not the voice of anybody. As it is now, both PDP and APC will be contesting against the people of Ekiti. And the symbol of the people of Ekiti State is Engr. Oni.”
In his reaction, former Director of Segun Oni Campaign Organization (SOCO), Hon. Lanre Ogunsuyi said the former governor’s exit was informed by a high degree of injustice visited on Oni by some powerful forces in the party during the January 26, 2022 primary election.
An angry Ogunsuyi said; “We have just said bye bye to PDP and Oni thanked all the people that worked with him and dissolved all the structures that ran the purported primary in PDP. What we have now is a confluence of people called the Segun Oni Movement. By next week, we should have sorted ourselves out in line with the INEC timetable.
“It is normal to speculate about politicians, especially a politician of Oni’s stature. He is a former governor and he has just left PDP. What is certain is that we have left PDP, but we are not certain about where we are going.”
Dropping hints on what informed Oni’s decision to call it quit with the country’s main opposition party, Ogunsuyi said; “Because PDP operates like a cult. Oni has been consistent in the search for truth. Truth in Nigerian politics means you will be persecuted and that is all what has been happening.
“When you are consistently searching for the truth, fair play, you are bound to run into stormy waters with people because those things have no value in Nigerian politics.”
