Defection: Military Will Become APC’s Opposition If Tinubu Turns Nigeria To One Party State – Olopoeyan

A chieftain of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo State, Bisi Olopoeyan, has said whether President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) use the instrumentality of power to coerce all opposition governors to defect, will not guarantee his re-election in the coming 2027 general elections.

Olopoeyan said no governor or lawmakers defected into the Labour Party (LP) in 2023 but yet the former governor of Anambra State and candidate of the Labour Party, defeated Mr President right in Lagos, his political base.

While reacting to the defection of the Delta State governor, Sheriff Francis Orohwedor Oborevwori and his predecessor, Ifeanyi Okowa to the ruling APC on Wednesday, Olopoeyan said all the PDP members rushing to join the ruling party would soon regret their actions by the time Nigeria gravitates into a one party nation.

According to Olopoeyan, “It will only take President Tinubu to annihilate PDP to turn Nigeria into one party state. Since 2015, when APC assumed power, the only opposition voice is the PDP.”

Olopoeyan specifically faulted Okowa’s defection to APC, saying he will never agree that the former governor of Delta State left PDP because he was coerced to do so.

According to him, “If Okowa had won the last presidential election as a running mate to the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, would he have defected to APC? Some people said he defected to avoid the EFCC probe but I strongly disagree with that.

According to him, “I think Okowa, the Delta State governor and their co-defectors are not looking at the future of their country, their states and their own family. If Nigeria should turn to one party state then the military becomes the opposition.

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“Okowa and the governor are ungrateful to the party that gave them the opportunity to be what they are in politics.

“The nature of politics Mr President is playing is very worrisome because both former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammad Buhari are soldiers but none of them coerced opposition members to join their parties.

“Mr President is going to face Nigerians in the 2027 election and all these defectors would not be able to help him.”

The Oyo State PDP stalwart, however blamed former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, saying the Turaki of Adamawa is one of those who laid the foundation of defections that is currently threatening the PDP.

“Once PDP governors followed Atiku to defect in 2015, the party is yet to get its acts together till today.

“All that is happening to PDP today, Atiku laid the foundation and he needs to go and seek forgiveness from God for what PDP has turned into today.”

Olopoeyan also warned the suspended governor of River State, Similayi Fubara, not to join the bandwagon of defectors, else he may lose political relevance in his state.