The crisis in All Progressives Congress in Ogun State deepened on Sunday as one of the special advisers to the Governor Ibikunle Amosun, Mrs. Abimbola Lanre-Balogun; defected to the Peoples Democratic Party.
Lanre-Balogun, was Special Adviser on Environment to the governor until Thursday last week, when she resigned her appointment.
Explaining the reason for her defection, at a PDP stakeholders meeting at the Goodluck Jonathan Political Centre in Ijebu-Igbo, Lanre-Balogun, said she was tired of enduring the style of governance being adopted by Amosun, which she described as “family affair.”
She further alleged that Amosun was “running a government of me, myself and my family.”
Lanre-Balogun told journalists shortly after her defection that her passion to work for the good people of the state necessitated the action, alleging that the Amosun-led administration had made her redundant.
She said, “I have been in this government (Amosun’s) since inception. I was sworn in as Special Adviser on Environment precisely on the July 21, 2011 and we swung into action. Like I always say, I have a passion for hard work, I set out to do so and began to do what God sent me to do for the good people of Ogun State.
“I began to work day and night when I was in the Ministry of Environment. It got to a stage that the governor himself called me to the executive meeting and he acknowledged my contribution.
“But along the line, I didn’t know what happened, I just saw that work was no longer coming and I went to him and said ‘Sir, I don’t like being bored, I want to work and that’s why I’m here.
“He said the position was just for me to occupy and that the people doing the work were there. And who were the people doing the work? Just five people – himself, his brother, his cousins and members of his family. We were not given anything to do.”
When contacted over Lanre-Balogun’s resignation and the allegations she made, the Commissioner for Information, Mr. Yusuph Olaniyonu, said the government would issue a statement on the development.
-PUNCH.
