Polls: Oyo APC Tells Makinde to Brace Up for Imminent Defeat

•Tinubu has no agreement with state governor, APC PCC declares

Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan

With the emergence of Bola Timubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the president-elect, the party in Oyo State, yesterday called on Governor ‘Seyi Makinde, to prepare for his imminent defeat in the March 11, governorship election.

The Director-General, Asiwaju Tinubu-Shettima Coalition for Good Governance, (ATSCGG), Adebayo Shittu, said this yesterday, while addressing a press conference in his office in Ibadan.

This was just as the APC Presidential Campaign Committee (PCC), in Oyo State, yesterday denied having a standing agreement with Makinde, as being speculated.

The former Minister of Communication, in his address, titled, “Whither Oyo State 2023,” said the APC in the state after the victory at the presidential and National Assembly elections has gone to redefine its trajectory to guarantee equally over-whelming and undiluted victory and triumph over the main opponent and the current governor.

According to him, “It would be recalled that Oyo State, as one of the foremost Yoruba States, had always been ruled by progressive parties under different names and colours.”

“However, the State fell into bad times under the last administration of the late Sen. Ishaq Ajimobi (of blessed memory). Unfortunately, he could not manage well the APC primaries for local governments, state assembly, gubernatorial and national assembly.

“Consequently all party members as aspired for one positions or the other and who were wrongly disenfranchised, decided to leave the party. Apart from exiting the APC, most of them joined Engr. Seyi Makinde and the rival PDP to defeat the APC in the 2019 general elections.”

Speaking further, he said: “This saw the emergence of Seyi Makinde as Oyo State Governor. As God would have it, Seyi Makinde, therefore, got the Oyo State governorship seat without the needed psychological preparation or required political experience.

“This is someone who had neither been a councilor, a commissioner, a legislator or a political executive at any

level. It was therefore, very easy for him to prove that experience cannot be purchased from any earthly store.

“Or, how else do we explain that of all the APC elements who joined forces with him to became governor in 2019, not one of them remain with him till today.”

Shittu maintained that the last Saturday presidential and National Assembly elections had shown clearly that people in the state have unanimously resolved to completely submit and support APC.

“The results of last Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections have shown clearly that our patriotic citizens of Oyo State have unanimously resolved to completely submit and support our great party, the APC with almost half a million votes for our presidential candidate, the victory of all three senatorial candidates of our party and ten out of fourteen House of Representatives.

“The APC is clearly the unrivalled leader among competing political parties in our state. We are therefore assured that with the foregoing results, the State Assembly and gubernatorial contest on March 11 would be a walk-over for our great party, the APC,” Shittu said.

In a related development, the APC PCC in Oyo State, yesterday denied having any agreement with Makinde, as being speculated.

The PCC was apparently reacting to a meeting the governor had with aggrieved candidates of the PDP for National Assembly where he called for their support on March 11 governorship election with a view to defect to the APC in the future.

It was learnt that the governor told the aggrieved candidates that he had an agreement with Tinubu, that he would defect to the APC after the election which the president-elect allegedly agreed to.

But a member of the PCC in the state, Nike Ajagbe, in a statement yesterday, said Makinde was only deceiving his members, adding that the visit of the campaign team to him had nothing to do with his endorsement.

She stated that the president-elect was a party man who cannot joke with the success of his party across the country, especially the south-west which is regarded as his stronghold.

She added that it was in the programme of the campaign team to visit all the opposition governors whenever they were in their state for campaign, insisting that nobody should see such as an endorsement, “but a privilege to host a widely accepted presidential candidate.”

Ajagbe who is a member, Directorate of Special Duties 3 of PCC, said being the governor of the state, the president-elect only visited Makinde as he did to other opposition governors whenever he visited their states.

She cited Governor Nyesom Wike of  Rivers State and other governors where Tinubu visited Government Houses before proceeding to the campaign grounds.

According to her, immediately the president-elect left Makinde’s office during his visit to Ibadan he went straight to the ancient Mapo Hall to raise the hand of the governorship candidate of the party, Senator Teslim Folarin.

She maintained that people were surprised to see the governor claiming he had agreement with Tinubu when he was unable to disclose his support for him openly, more so when he  urged people of the state to vote for a unifier during the campaign period.

In the meantime, the governorship candidate of the APC in the state, Folarin, in a statement by his media aide condemned Makinde for allegedly lavishing N500 million on aggrieved PDP candidates and other stakeholders.

Folarin said the governor demonstrated that he had nothing to offer the good people of the state than spending to please his party men, adding that it was the same way he was spending the state resources on private jet while fighting for the so called G-5 Governors in his party.

He then urged the people of the state to vote massively for the APC in the March 11 governorship election so as to maintain the same party both at the federal and state levels.