The Deputy Governor of Ondo State, Ali Olanusi, who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party Thursday morning, has said that he decided to join the All Progressives Congress, APC, because the party offers a platform where he can find justice, fairness and equity.
In a statement Thursday afternoon, Olanusi said that “While still being in place as the democratically elected Deputy Governor of Ondo State, I have decided to lead my teeming supporters and well wishers in the state into the All Progressive Congress (APC) where we can find justice, fairness, equity and democratic liberty, a party to which majority of our kith and kins in Yorubaland belongs.
“I have taken this decision at this critical time, in the best interest of peace, stability and good governance of our dear state and for the overall development of the South West and the nation.”
“They (his followers) have watched helplessly in the last six years years the untold marginalisation and total exclusion from the government they laboured to put in place,” he said.
The State Commissioner for Information, Kayode Akinmade, while acknowledging the news of the defection of Olanusi, said that “Though it came as a surprise, government acknowledge his right to determine his political affiliation and wish him well.”
Olanusi is said to have had a frosty relationship with Governor Olusegun Mimiko for sometime.
He ran with Mimiko on the platform of the Labour Party in 2007, becoming deputy governor in 2009 after the Court of Appeal declared Mimiko winner of the disputed 2007 governorship election in the state.
He ran again with Mimiko on the platform of the same party in 2014, but in October 2014, the governor and his deputy defected to the PDP.
Olanusi’s defection came less than a week after the Deputy Governor of Rivers State, Tele Ikuru, left the APC for the PDP.
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