16th September, 2014
Abiodun Onafuye/Abeokuta
Mrs. Lanre Abimbola Balogun, Special Adviser to the Ogun state governor, Ibikunle Amosun on Environment was among members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state that defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the weekend. She was joined by members of Labour Party (LP) another opposition party.
Our correspondent reliably gathered that the woman resigned her appointment with the state government last week Thursday, citing personal reason.
She declared her resignation at a reception organised to welcome all the decampees by the Ogun State chapter of the PDP at the newly constructed Goodluck Jonathan Political Centre, Ijebu Igbo in Ijebu North local government area of the state.
Balogun told the crowd at the centre that she had been made redundant, bored and could no longer cope. “I have been in this government since its inception. I was sworn in as Special Adviser on Environment precisely on the 21st of July, 2011 and we swung into action. Like I always say, I have passion for hard work; I set out to
do so and began to do what God sent me to do for the good people of Ogun State.
“I worked day and night when I was in the Ministry of Environment that it got to a stage that the governor himself called me to the Executive meeting to take a bow. Anytime there was work to be done, he would always say, ‘give Bimbo the core of the task’. One day, I popped a question to him: ‘Excellency, you always say that they should put me in a hard place, what do you mean Sir?, he said, because I know you are up to the task. So I started the work, but along the line, I didn’t know what happened, I just saw that work was no more coming and I went to him and said I don’t like being bored, I want to work and that’s why I’m here.
“For two years, I worked so hard to the extent that Governor Ibikunle Amosun at a point commended me. But all of a sudden he transferred my duties to other people and I was made redundant and when I complained to him he told me not to worry but should continue to collect my salary because others are doing my job,” she narrated.
Balogun explained that she was pained even more because the people believed to be carrying out her duties are the governors sibling. “He said the position is just for me to occupy and that the people doing the work are there. And who were the people doing the work? Just five people, himself, his brother, his cousins and members of his family. We were not given anything to do. I am a proper Ogun woman, born in Abeokuta, both my parents are indigenes of Abeokuta,” she said sarcastically.
“I started sending emissaries to ask him if I have done anything wrong, maybe that is why he’s not asking me to do any work. He said, no, that I should just stay there. At that point that I was going to wait patiently for three and half years, maybe he would change, but he did not, and I needed to move on because it is my life and destiny
and I have got to take it in my hands and that was why I moved on to join the PDP,” Balogun explained.
On why she decided to pitch her tent with the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, she said, “It took me time to assess the situation and l looked at all the parties on ground before deciding and I knew that PDP was the way for me. I put in my resignation last week Thursday and it has been a begging galore but I have made up my mind,” she said.
Balogun however hinted that more people in the cabinet are about leaving the government to join the party. “Very soon other prominent personalities in this government will quit the government for one reason or the other. Honestly, I’m like John the Baptist; I have just come forward, so that I can preach the gospel to others,” Balogun
said.
While receiving the defected members into the party, the party state Chairman, Engr. Bayo Dayo insisted that, despite the challenges confronting the PDP, it is still a well organised, well funded and most Democratic Party among all the political parties in the state, adding that, the party’s doors are widely open for those that are still coming.