The All Progressives Congress APC in Oyo state has told Governor Seyi Makinde and his supporters to desist from making false claims about having the endorsement of the President-elect, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, ahead of the next week gubernatorial election saying that it was a height of desperation and insincerity.
There have been insinuations from Agodi Government House that Gov. Makinde played a key role in the victory recorded by Sen. Tinubu in Oyo state last Saturday when he polled a total of 449,884 votes to defeat the presidential candidates of the PDP, LP, NNPP and other political parties in the state.
In a statement issued on Thursday and made available to journalists in Ibadan by its Publicity Secretary, Olawale Sadare, Oyo APC queried the rationale behind the insinuations about Gov. Makinde being responsible for the delivery of all the three Senatorial and eight House of Representatives seats to the APC (while two are still pending) in the same election where Gov. Makinde’s PDP also fielded its best candidates whose electioneering the governor campaigned for and funded heavily.
“Those behind the wicked rumour are some unscrupulous elements whose motive is to mislead the public and attract undue sympathy from certain quarters outside the state. To set the record straight, Oyo PDP did its best to secure victory for all its candidates at the last Saturday election but they failed simply because Oyo APC was far ahead of them in terms of preparedness, human resources and strategy.
“We therefore challenge Gov. Makinde or any of his agents to present any evidence of the purported agreement or deal between them and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu if they are truthful. The only thing they harmed with is the courtesy visit which the presidential candidate of our Party paid to the Agodi Government Secretariat on the day of our Presidential Rally and this, as far as we are concerned, happened because a statesman like Sen. Tinubu cannot pay an official visit to any state without paying a courtesy visit on the sitting governor.
“The truth of the matter is that the five aggrieved PDP governors were naive and lacking in political strategies. Gov. Wike was the only one among them who was courageous enough to assist the cause of Sen. Tinubu and he did not do at the expense of his PDP as all the National Assembly candidates of the APC failed in in his state. In the case of Oyo, there was no report of any serving political office holder or appointee of the PDP who mobilized for Tinubu or any other APC candidate at the poll.
“For the avoidance of doubt, candidates of Oyo PDP were able to win in about four federal constituencies and this indicates that members of the ruling party approached the election with all seriousness as they garnered good votes in most polling units where their party emerged second. Just last Tuesday, Gov. Makinde invited all PDP stakeholders in the state and he gave them N500m as gifts for the job they dis for their candidates in the last weekend election. Meanwhile, the lie about a deal with Sen. Tinubu cannot fly because the President-elect is a core Progressive democrat who can never engage in any anti-party activity.” Sadare stated.
In the same vein, Oyo APC has raised the alarm over alleged reports of some agents of the ruling PDP moving round public primary and secondary schools across the state to mislead both teaching and non-teaching staff as they fabricate all sort of lies against the gubernatorial candidate of the APC, Sen. Teslim Folarin. “We are using this medium to disabuse the minds of public servants in the state. Sen. Folarin, if elected governor, would not only ensure prompt and full payment of salaries and other entitlement due to public servants and pensioners as he would do more to make life easier for all and sundry.
“Members of the general public are enjoined to disregard all manner of misinformation and rumours traceable to Gov. Makinde and his agents as they are only trying to mislead voters ahead of next Saturday election. The level of desperation behind exhibited by the governor’s clearly indicates that they are being hounded by their own shadow. If Gov. Makinde had done well in the last four years, he would not have to be paranoid to face the electorate again as seeks reelection.” Oyo APC added.
