The Oyo State Secretary of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Ademola Oke, has dismissed claims that members of the All Progressives Congress defected to the party, describing the purported defection as untrue.
Oke said the state executive of the APM was not aware of any formal defection from the APC, insisting that none of the party’s 351 ward chairmen attended the gathering at the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium, Ibadan.
The APM scribe was reacting to claims surrounding the gathering, which he said should not be interpreted as a mass movement of APC members into the APM.
He said, “APM is a structured party. Nobody defected to our party. We have procedures for defection, and none of the APC structures, from ward to state level, joined us.
“How could people join us and there was no communication between us?”
Oke urged members of the public to disregard claims of a major influx of APC members into the APM, saying political defections could only be recognised when they were properly communicated through the relevant party structures.
He said the gathering at Adamasingba should not be presented as a formal political defection involving APC members.
According to him, none of the 351 ward chairmen of the APM was present at the event, arguing that the absence of the party’s grassroots structures raised questions about claims of a major political movement.
“Genuine defections should be identified through the appropriate party structures and procedures, not through hired crowds and concerts at a CAF-rejected stadium,” Oke added.
The APM secretary maintained that the party remained a structured political organisation with established procedures for admitting defectors, stressing that no such process had taken place in relation to the alleged APC defection.
