26th March, 2015
Ondo state deputy governor Alhaji Alli Olanusi has decamped to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.
Olanusi, 71, and Governor Olusegun Mimiko defected to the PDP from Labour Party only last year but since their defection, there’s been tussle between the existing PDP leaders in the state and Mimiko. Olanusi and Mimiko have always also been at loggerheads, with speculations few years ago, that he would resign. Of recent, there were speculations that Mimiko was trying to work out his impeachment.
The deputy governor from Supare in Akoko South-West Local Government Area of the State became the deputy governor of the State in 2009 under the platform of Labour Party before he defected along side with the governor to PDP in October, 2014.
In a statement he issued to announce his defection, Alhaji Olanusi said: “In the unfolding political development in our country today, and in Ondo State in particular, it is increasingly clear that I need to chart a new course for the majority of my followers who look up to me for direction and leadership and who have watched helplessly in the last six (6) years, the untold marginalisation and total exclusion from the government they laboured to put in place.
“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 Progressives Congress (APC) where we can find justice, fairness, equity and democratic liberty- a party to which the majority of our kith and kins in Yoruba land and beyond belong.”
“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.”
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Olanusi’s political journey started when he became the Chairman of Constituency 1, in Akoko South Local Government in 1978 under the platform of the then Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) under the leadership of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
Between 1988 and 1989 Alhaji Olanusi became a member of Constituent Assembly, representing Akoko South Local Government (now Akoko South-West and Akoko South-East Local Government Areas).
In 1992, he was elected to the lower house of the National Assembly House of Representatives under the then Social Democratic Party, SDP, and later served as the Chairman, House Committee on Federal Commission and Councils.
In 2003 he became the Ondo State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and led the party to a resounding victory in a subsequent election.
Recently, the Rivers State Deputy Governor, Tele Ikuru dumped the APC for PDP in the state. Shortly after his defection, he labelled the APC a party made up of “rebels”.
In Niger state, the deputy governor also dumped the PDP and joined the APC.