Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former governor of Lagos State and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Saturday joined Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi and other party stalwarts to welcome high profile decampees from other parties in Oyo state.
The reception which held at the Mapo Hall Arcade, Ibadan coincided with the 68th birthday celebration of Governor Abiola Ajimobi.
The defectors included a former governor of Oyo State, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala, who was governor from 2007 to 2011, under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He moved to the Labour Party (LP) to contest the 2015 general elections.
Other defectors are former Senate Leader, Teslim Folarin; former deputy governor of the state and former Nigerian Ambassador to Jordan, Amb Taofeek Arapaja; former Secretary to the State Government, Chief Ayodele Adigun; the only federal lawmaker elected on the platform of PDP to the House of Representatives, Segun Odebunmi; as well as Rauf Olaniyan, Ayoola Makanjuola, Alhaji Rasaq Gbadegesin and their teeming supporters.
In an interview with journalists before the public reception, Tinubu dismissed insinuations that implosion is imminent in the party due to the number political heavyweights defecting to the party ahead of 2019 general elections.
His words: “We have a stainless kitchen and we can accommodate as many cooks as possible and because we will have a variety of menu in the political kitchen of planning this future.
“We love those big wigs and we can accommodate them all. It is in the same forest that you find a hippo that you find an elephant and you will find a rabbit. In political platforms, you must look for the addition not the minus.”
Other APC leaders present are Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo state, Chief Segun Oni, a former governor of Ekiti State and Deputy National Chairman (South West), Chief Pius Akinyelure, National Vice Chairman (South West) and others.