BREAKING: Former Ondo deputy governor exits PDP, set to join APC

By Boye Oyeyemi –

A former Deputy Governor of Ondo State, Ambassador Omolade Oluwateru, has resigned from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), citing prolonged leadership crises at both the national and state levels.

Oluwateru announced his exit from the opposition party on Thursday during his 79th birthday celebration organised by the Asiwaju Mandate Group in Akure, the state capital.

The former Nigerian Ambassador to Uganda said the PDP had lost direction and internal cohesion, adding that the crisis had made it impossible for committed members to remain in the party.

He specifically accused the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, of aggravating the internal turmoil rocking the PDP, insisting that the situation had become irredeemable.

Oluwateru, who served as deputy governor between 2003 and 2007 under the late Dr Olusegun Agagu, said he had formally submitted his resignation letter to his ward chairman after being a member of the party since 1998.

Although he did not immediately declare his next political destination, he disclosed that he would soon announce where he was heading, insisting that he was not retiring from politics.

Reacting, the Ondo State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Engr Ade Adetimehin, described Oluwateru as a man of integrity and expressed confidence that he would strengthen the ruling party in the state.

The Director-General of the Asiwaju Mandate Group, Mr Muyiwa Asagunla, also praised the former deputy governor, describing his exit from the PDP as a major setback for the opposition party in Ondo State.

Sources at the event said Oluwateru’s resignation was a precursor to his formal defection to the APC, adding that many of his allies and supporters had already joined the ruling party.