My supporters were treated like leprous people in APC, Oni alleges

• Claims he helped Fayemi to win governorship election • Ex- governor an ungrateful person, says APC

FORMER Governor of Ekiti State, Chief Segun Oni, yesterday said that his supporters across the 16 local councils of the state were treated like leprous people after he helped Governor Kayode Fayemi to win the 2018 governorship election.

Oni said that his planned defection to the People’s Democratic Party ( PDP) was because of the oppressive nature of the Fayemi- led administration against his people, “coupled with the nepotism and clannishness witnessed in the appointment into federal, state and local council positions.”

Oni, who addressed newsmen through the DirectorGeneral of his political platform under the acronym “Atunse Ekiti Movement,” Mr. Ife Arowosoge, stated that the decision was part of the collective resolution taken by his loyalists in view of alleged maltreatment being inflicted on them in APC.

He said he found the PDP more democratic at this time having learnt its lesson from the defeat of 2015 general elections, describing the opposition as better organised and more democratic than it was in the past. He said: “Many of our members were threatened with expulsion and suspension why some handpicked ward executives were instigated to suspend him indefinitely. We sent a petition to the NWC about this irresponsible action, but nothing was done.

“The party has made mistakes and apologised but things are getting worse in APC. We have contributed to APC but get nothing in return. So, our defection is justifiable and not self- serving.”

Meanwhile, the APC’S State Publicity Secretary, Mr. Ade Ajayi, who responded to the issues, said Oni was an ungrateful soul because the party gave him the patronage he didn’t deserve.

Ajayi said that the party never gave Oni any unfair treatment but rather, was accorded the necessary respect and recognition when he joined the party from the PDP in 2014.

He said: “We are not surprised that he is going back to PDP where he came from, but I don’t know the shabby treatment that made him to defect to PDP.

“He was suspended from his political ward because he offended them and instead of him to attend the ward meeting to explain himself, he refused. Don’t forget the constitution of the party stipulated that anybody, no matter how highly- placed, can be disciplined by the party.”