By Ajani Okanlawon
Senator Gbemisola Rukayyat Saraki who had been consistently rumoured to have defected from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to All Progressives Congress (APC) finally declared for the latter on Friday
The first daughter of Second Republic Senate Leader, Olusola Saraki, also directed her followers to vote for the APC and its candidates in the general elections beginning this Saturday.
Saraki, who arrived in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, on Friday after spending weeks in Abuja, told her supporters who followed her from the airport to her home in Iloffa area, to switch allegiance to the APC.
She told her supporters: “I thank you all for always being there for me.
“All of you know that tomorrow, March 28, is the last Saturday of the month and also the day for the presidential and National Assembly elections.
“I urge you to sweep your environment very well with your brooms.”
The broom is the symbol of the APC whose candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari is President Goodluck Jonathan’s main challenger in the election.
Saraki’s defection follows a failed attempt by the PDP to keep her in its fold.
“We consider it expedient to implore Senator Saraki and her teeming supporters not to allow the voices of division to overwhelm them,” the Kwara State secretary of the PDP, Hassan Razaq, said in a statement earlier in March.
“We particularly noted her maturity and sportsmanship before, during and after the party primaries which produced distinguished Senator Simeon Ajibola as the party’s gubernatorial candidate for the April 11th gubernatorial election in the state.
“It would therefore be sad if such an individual, who has immensely uplifted the party in the state, abandons the house she has built at its time of need. This is Kwara PDP’s time of need and we urge Senator Saraki to remain in the party and see through the struggle for the liberation of Kwarans.
“Although it may not be impossible that there are areas of grievances, we believe it is not enough to allow such to derail our focus now ahead of the polls.
“We reiterate that all the genuinely aggrieved are being sorted and the leadership of the party shall do all its best to ensure that all cases of genuine grievances are addressed before the polls.”
With her defection, Gbemi Saraki joins her brother, Senator Bukola Saraki, who was governor of Kwara from 2003 to 2011, in dumping PDP for APC.
