The frosty relationship between former president, Olusegun Obasanjo and the national leadership of the PDP assumed a new dimension yesterday as no fewer than 1000 supporters of Obasanjo led by his strong ally and a one-time national treasurer of the party, Bode Mustapha defected to the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ogun State.
The defecting Peoples’ Democratic Party members warned the Inspector General of Police, IGP Suleiman Abba against plunging the country into war following his removal of the security details of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal.
Mustapha, who served as a member of the House of Representatives between 1999 and 2003 and had earlier submitted his form of intent for the Ogun Central Senatorial seat described APC as a better alternative to PDP.
He led other prominent members of the PDP, including the former Chairman of Abeokuta North, Sunday Akintona to move over to the APC.
Berating the IGP for withdrawing Tambuwal’s security aides, Mustapha noted that the continued absence of the security aides attached to the speaker could expose him to sundry security risks particularly the Boko Haram sect members, who had attacked prominent persons in the country.
He said, “In Nigeria, we love sentiments a lot. Do we know what can happen to Nigeria if anything should happen to Speaker Tambuwal? Nobody knows! The IGP should not put this country on fire. He should immediately restore Tambuwa’s security aides until a court of competent jurisdiction declares his seat vacant.
“He was elected as the primus inter-pares in the House of Representatives. He was elected as leader by his members and it is only his members that can remove him as Speaker or a court of competent jurisdiction. Then and only then can his security aides be withdrawn.
“When people were defecting to PDP, it was hosanna in Aso Rock to the extent that Governor Mimiko of Ondo State defected to the PDP.
‘’But whatever is good for the goose is equally good for the gander. When Tambuwal defected, you withdrew his security aides. Why didn’t you do same when Governor Mimiko defected to the PDP because he was elected on the platform of the Labour Party, LP?”, he queried.
The APC Deputy Chairman in Ogun State, Alhaji Tajudeen Lemboye, in receiving Mustapha’s forms promised that the party would provide a level playing field for all aspirants in the state.
DailyPost recalls that Obasanjo had earlier in the year said on Channels Television that he bore no grudge against anybody in the PDP, but expressed his displeasure with the choice of Mr Buruji Kashamu as the Chairman, Mobilisation and Organisation committee of the party in the South-West.
This was his exact words then, “As a former President of Nigeria, the Chairman of West African Commission on Drug and a member of the Global Commission on Drug, I cannot accept that the zonal leader of my political party and, worse still in my zone, will be an indicted drug baron wanted in America. How do I explain that to friends outside Nigeria? This is only one of the many issues that I have pointed out and still pointing out,” he said, while giving a reason for his seeming withdrawal from the party’s national activities.”
He maintained that he had a “national and international standard to maintain and reputation to keep and sustain”. .
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