Contrary to the impression that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State has landed a big fish with the defection of a former Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development, Engr Musa Ayinla Yeketi, to the party from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the PDP insists Yeketi was already an excess to requirement in the party.
Yeketi formally dumped the PDP for APC on Sunday, barely 24 hours after he was suspended by the PDP the previous day.
The decampee, who served as commissioner in immediate past government of Governor Abdulfatai Mohammed, joined APC with about 14 political groups said to be loyal to him.
His camp insists that his alleged suspension was a face-saving stunt by the PDP, after it became clear that there was no stopping his joining the APC.
A political son of the late Dr. Olusola Saraki, Yeketi had been at loggerheads with the leadership of the political family under Dr. Bukola Saraki. But the PDP alleged that, for filthy lucre, Yeketi had become a mole of sort in the party and was practically sabotaging the party from within. The party, therefore, said it decided to suspend him for working against the interest of the party.
Rubbishing the ex-commissioner’s allegation of high handedness in the PDP, a party source told the Nigerian Xpress that there were mouthwatering offers from the state government which Yeketi wasn’t disciplined and committed enough to resist. According to the official, Yeketi’s decampment has nothing to do with his marginalisation in the PDP.
According to a statement jointly signed by Alhaji Saludeen Babatunde and Alhaji Salman Abdulquadir, Chairman and Secretary of PDP in Alapa/Onire/Ode Ward of Kwara state respectively, Yeketi was suspended from the party with effect from Thursday, March 17, 2022 at the meeting of the party over alleged anti-party activities
The statement said that the suspension was in accordance with section 57(3) of the 2017 constitution (as amended) of the Peoples Democratic Party.
Yeketi is alleged to have been hobnobbing with both the APC and Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, whom he said “appreciates us”.
He had had several meetings with the governor and agents of the government, culminating a private meeting between the two men last November.
He was received in to the APC by the state Deputy Governor.