Senator representing Oyo South Senatorial District, Kola Balogun, has formally defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Balogun’s notice of defection was contained in a letter addressed to the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and read at the start of plenary on Wednesday.
His defection brings the number of APC Senators in the upper chamber to 70.
According to the lawmaker, his decision to defect from the PDP was due to the lack of internal democracy in the party at the state level for the emergence of leaders and representatives.
He added that the development has further led to the existence of several factions and aggrieved groups within the party.
Balogun’s defection letter reads in part, “The decision to resign was informed by the Oyo State Governor’s reign of impunity that had led him into supplanting the constitutional assigned roles of party bureaucrats and party stakeholders and replacing them with unilaterally declared decisions on who and who should emerge as the legitimate representatives of the people.
“This unconstitutional, flagrant and dictatorial procedural breeches for the emergence of leaders and representatives of the people has led to the factionalisation of the party, this breeding several aggrieved groups within the party and mass exodus of key leaders from the party.
“This development has laid the foundation for the failure of the party at subsequent polls and also stand to jeopardize the political future and interest of my people, who had worked assiduously to get me elected in the 2019 February elections.
“Rising from the meeting of the key stakeholders in my district, on 27th April, 2022, my people unanimously decided that I should resign my membership of the People’s Democratic Party as they were ready to also rain and decamp en masse with me to the All Progressives Congress with immediate effect.
“This notification becomes exigency in order to intimate the Distinguished Members of Senate with the recent political developments in the PDP-led administration in Oyo State, and the direction in which my people and I are presently focused.”