Wale Bolorunduro, a former Commissioner for Finance in Osun State has described the State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a party of deceit.
Bolorunduro, who served as a Commissioner during the Rauf Aregbesola administration, revealed that he began to suspect the party when he discovered that it had nothing to offer the people of the State.
Before his defection to the Osun Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bolorunduro was a chieftain of both The Osun Progressives (TOP) and the Rasaq Salinsile faction of the Osun APC.
He is also a vocal critic of the Adegboyega Oyetola administration, especially in the area of finance and the administration’s critique of its predecessor.
Both TOP and the Rasaq Salinsile-led faction of the party had been in a running battle with the Osun State Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola and his faction of the Osun APC and his Ileri Oluwa group.
The quarrel has seen many TOP leaders being attacked and TOP meetings have also been attacked twice before the Osun 2022 gubernatorial election.
TOP and the Rasaq Salinsile faction of the party have the backing of Rauf Aregbesola, the Minister of Interior.
Bolorunduro, who was speaking at his official defection from the APC to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ijebu-Jesa on Saturday, stated that his decision was because the PDP is more of a progressives party and not deceitful.
In his words, “My followers and I are defecting today (Saturday) to the PDP because it is the party for the progressives. It is a party that is transparent and not deceitful as the former party I was.
“I left APC because my glory was being covered and my contributions trampled upon. APC is full of deceit. There is nothing called progressives in that party.”
Bolorunduro is the second high profile APC member in Osun State to officially decamp to the PDP.
The first to decamp was Kolapo Alimi, who was a former two-term Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affair in the Rauf Aregbesola administration.
He was made the Deputy Director-General of the Ademola Adeleke campaign organisation and is currently a member of the Transition Committee in the State.
In his remark, the Osun PDP Caretaker chairman, Adekunle Akindele called on other APC members who are still contemplating either to join the PDP or not to do so in the interest of the State.
Akindele noted that the outgoing government of Oyetola has wreaked havoc on the State.
Meanwhile, the Osun State Government has reacted to the claims by the former Finance Commissioner, Bolorunduro.
In a statement signed by Funke Egbemode, the Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, the State government stated that the claims by the former Commissioner regarding the State’s finance under Governor Adegboyega Oyetola was a misrepresentation of facts and outright lies against the person of the governor and the government he superintends over.
The statement also challenged the former Commissioner to be courageous enough to tell the whole world the truth about his inglorious years in Osun where one-month salary was paid four times at intervals.
