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Jubilation enveloped Akinboade, a remote town in Ward 06 of Akorede Local Council Development Authority in Oluyole Federal Constituency of Oyo State on Friday as the camp of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC was swelled with the defection of an influential female merchant and politician in the ward, Alhaja Muinat Lateef.
A statement by Femi Omolola of the Ojo Ola Oyo media team, disclosed this at the weekend, saying that Alhaja Lateef defected from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to APC with scores of her followers.
According to Omolola, Alhaja Lateef joined the APC at the instance of House of Representatives aspirant, Alhaji Kehinde Olaosebikan, who was in the ward to meet the APC leadership.
The statement said that “it was while Alhaji Olaosebikan was showing love to the people in his characteristic manner that the influential merchant told the crowd that with Olaosebikan, she and her followers “have become members of the All Progressives Congress with immediate effect”.
The campaign spokesman said the leader of the APC in the area who is also the Councilor for the ward, Honorable Samuel Oyewale Idowu who received the new members, disclosed that he and other leaders of the party in the ward had made several entreaties to the influential woman in the past seven years to join APC but all to no avail.
The statement reads further: “Expressing happiness, Honourable Idowu told the excited party leaders that the defection of Alhaja Lateef to APC was a significant achievement for APC and the entire ward, stressing that with Alhaja and her people in APC, the area is now totally in the hands of the progressives, a development, he explained would engender greater peace, unity and progress in Ward 06 and Akorede LCDA generally.
“The Councilor thanked Alhaji Olaosebikan for making the over 7 year old dream of the entire leadership and members of APC in the ward come to reality in less than an hour visit to the ward.
“Honorable Idowu stated that Alhaji Olaosebikan is well loved not only in Oluyole Local Government but in Oyo State generally for his good-natured, selflessness, compassion, humility, tolerance, resourcefulness and readiness to serve at all times.
“He added that: “with Olaosebikan as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the House of Representatives election, it is surely going to be a landslide victory for our party”.