Belgore Joins PDP as APC Dismisses Move"

Belgore Joins PDP as APC Dismisses Move" The fortunes of the All Progressive Congress (APC) continue to decline, as the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governorship candidate in the 2011 governorship election in Kwara State, Mohammed Dele Belgore Friday formally declared for the PDP. However, the interim Chairman of APC in Kwara State, Hon Ishola Balogun Fulani dismissed the defection as a blessing in disguise, pointing out that the party has been widely accepted in the State with 374,400 people registering as members so far. He also accused the Interim National Leadership of the APC of leadership imposition stating that the leaders of the party were not allowed to emerge through democratic procedures, saying, “the owner of home should not be displaced to give a strange a sense of friendship, and to many, the soul of the party.” Dele Belgore lamented that the process of leadership in the state was made to favour some people, without ensuring the enthronement of democratic procedures. According to Belgore, “Our people do not believe that people are made for a platform. Rather, they believe that platforms are made for the people. No positive change is possible where we are to co-exist with the same elements that the people of Kwara want to dislodge”. Giving reasons why he has to move to the PDP, the former ACN governorship candidate in Kwara state said, “To our supporters and political independent, APC has let us down. We have therefore decided not to be part of an arrangement that put us in the same ship driven by the oppressors. “APC is undemocratic and more and more people will defect from the party. We are therefore joining the PDP, a party, as fate now has it, has shed very core of liabilities that made our run away from it. We are joining hands with other like minds in the PDP who were unjustly shut out because of their progressive bent to strengthen the party and to endear it to the people of Kwara state. “Together we will work to advocate and bring about economic liberation, equal opportunity for all and positive development to our dear state and its peoples. We join forces to break the shackles of oppression and restore our state back to its former glory”, Belgore said. Though, he said that it was not easy to leave a party that he has nurtured in Kwara state to such an enviable position, but said, “the reality is that APC by its undemocratic stance and scant regard for the yearnings of our people and supporters has strayed from the path of progress and development, that is the core of our political existence in Kwara”. Belgore then called his supporters, to support and join his sojourns in PDP to enable him fight what he described as “this just and noble cause so as to bring a brighter day to the lives our people and renew their positive aspirations”. Asked whether he is not afraid that he is joining a party like PDP that is full of crisis, Belgore said, “PDP is about to get over its problems, but the APC crisis is about to start”. Fulani said that it was even better for Belgore to remain with APC where there is hope for him than going to the crumbling party, adding that anyone who had the mind of positively developing the people, APC was the place to be instead of the PDP which he insisted has a track history of failures.. “But he is now defecting to PDP, a crumbling party that we know. Well. I wish him well but I know he may come back to APC because he is going to line up there because there are people that are more experienced than him in the remnant of PDP, which means he will a back bencher” he added.

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