The governorship candidates of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo state, Barrister Sharafadeen Alli and Engineer Seyi Makinde have stated reasons for not attending the governorship debate organized by British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Yoruba on Friday.
Alli, former Secretary to Oyo state government stated that the organisers of the event failed to feature him in the advertisements preceding the event.
The former Chairman, Odu’a Investment Company Limited in a statement made available to DAILY POST through his Media Aide, Comrade Taiwo Ibrahim on Friday, maintained that though attention of the organisers was drawn to the error in the advertisements but the “error” according to him was not corrected.
He said, “Like every other candidate, the organisers invited me but in the advertisements preceding the event.
“Subsequent advertisements made by them failed to bear my image and other details as one of the invitees to the event.
“The attention of the organisers was drawn to the error in the advertisements and they promised to effect a correction.
“I shunned the BBC Gubernatorial debate in Oyo, because I have scheduled other campaign tours for the day, outside Ibadan, the state capital”.
Makinde, on the other hand, cited earlier commitments as the reason for his absence at the debate.
The PDP candidate in a statement by Prince Dotun Oyelade, his Media Aide, said that he had agreed with the people of Ibadan South East that he would kick off his campaign early enough today.
Oyelade said he observed with interest the various contradictory statements credited to Mr Bayo Adelabu during the programme, that he will provide free education when he and his mentor have been quoted severally saying that funding education cannot be solely handled by government.
Makinde said that for a man who said that he’s committed to the continuation of the policies of Ajimobi his mentor, it is difficult to believe him when he said that he will make sure that Lautech returns to past glory when it was his mentor that dismantled the Institution in the first place.
Makinde also observed that Adelabu could not distance himself from the health policy of his mentor that saw women in labour forced to bring even lanterns to the delivery rooms in government hospitals.
