Ex-minister Ogunlewe set to quit PDP, join APC

A former minister of works and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, is on his way out of the party to join the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Ogunlewe, a former Minister of Works, confirmed his potential move to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday.

His son, Moyosore, who was a PDP candidate in the state assembly election held in March has already dumped the party and joined the APC.

Moyosore announced his resignation from the PDP soon after he lost the elelction.

The elder Ogunlewe told NAN that he would be joining his lawyer son in the APC within the next 30 days.

He said he decided to dump the PDP because the party was rudderless and perpetually enmeshed in crisis.

Ogunlewe said he saw no future in the PDP and that nobody should expect a politician of his status to stay in a house where some leaders are only after their selfish interests.

The former minister said that issues arising from the governorship election exposed the fact that some people are only after money and not the progress of the PDP in Lagos State.

He said: “Yes, I am set to leave. My son is already there and he is expecting me to join him. I am leaving in the next 30 days.

“You see, for now, there is no chairman in PDP. We don’t have leaders and you don’t expect me to stay in a party that is not stable and with people that lack focus.

“Look at what happened in the last elections. The supposed chairman of the PDP in the state asked members to vote for the opposition for whatever reason.

“Is that a party? Should I remain with people like these?

“What they (PDP) care about is only their selfish interests and not the interest of the party. I am giving the party 30 days’ notice, after which I will leave.

“I am tired of a party running into one problem or the other, and I tell you, these people can never change.”

The former minister said that he was also joining APC because he was convinced that the party would zone the presidency to the South West in 2023, apart from being a better-organised party.

Ogunlewe said he would not want to be left out of any arrangement to give the region the presidency in 2023.

He said he would be leaving the PDP with his teeming supporters, promising to add value to the APC.

Ogunlewe was a member of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) on whose platform he won election into the Senate in 1999.

He was later appointed minister of works by the then President Olusegun Obasanjo.