The defeated candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in the March governorship election in Ogun State, Adekunle Abdulkabir Akinlade has announced his return to the All Progressives Congress (APC), effectively killing the party inspired by former Governor Ibikunle Amosun.
Akinlade’s return to the APC followed the dismissal last Friday by the Supreme Court of his petition against the election of Governor Dapo Abiodun of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
His sponsor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun who was suspended for anti-party activities had his suspension lifted last week.
Akinlade announced his return to the APC at a stakeholders’ meeting held at the APM Secretariat in Abeokuta. He also directed his supporters to return to the “pre-October 2018 APC.”
He explained that the decision to return to APC was taken during a stakeholders’ meeting of leaders and elders of Ogun APC on Sunday.
According to Akinlade, everybody who contested the 2019 elections on the platform of APM has been directed to bury their grievances and return to the fold.
He recalled that it was the struggle to actualise his mandate and redress the injustice allegedly meted out to him and his supporters that made him to seek for an alternative platform.
Akinlade urged his supporters to set their grievances aside and display the same courage and high sense of responsibility that kept them on the course of justice through the last 15 months.
He, however, declared that the judgement of the Supreme Court on the Ogun governorship election delivered on Wednesday fell short of his expectation and that of his supporters.
The Supreme Court had affirmed the election of Gov. Dapo Abiodun as the governor of the state.
But Akinlade said that “we have set in motion a chain of actions that hinge on our resolve to sustain the noble vision tagged” Mission to Rebuild our dear state”.
“We have always expressed the conviction that in the fullest of time and after the struggle to restore the mandate of our people, we shall return to the APC, which we toiled with fellow compatriots to build, nourish and entrench in Ogun.
“It is with this reality in mind that I most sincerely call on every one of you that it is time to return home to the pre-October 2nd, 2018 Ogun APC political family with a view to sustain our core base, consolidate our gains so far and continue to support the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari to positively reposition our dear country.”