Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State and his Osun counterpart, Ademola Adeleke, have knocked the Nationwide Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Abdullahi Ganduje, for saying the APC would take over Oyo and Osun states after successful Ondo State on Saturday.
Talking with journalists in Akure on Sunday, after the Impartial Nationwide Electoral Fee declared the APC candidate, Fortunate Aiyedatiwa, because the winner of Saturday governorship election in Ondo State, Ganduje had declared that the APC aimed to attain political homogeneity of the South-West by additional displacing the Peoples Democratic Occasion from Oyo and Osun states.
Ganduje had stated, “Our subsequent goal now could be the South-West geopolitical zone, and we’re good at hitting the goal, and that is Osun State and Oyo State. We’ll do all that’s attainable to carry them into the fold in order that we’ve got political homogeneity within the South-West geopolitical zone.”
However reacting on Monday, Oyo State Governor Makinde described Ganduje’s assertion as wishful pondering whereas Osun Governor Adeleke cautioned the APC Nationwide Chairman towards anti-democratic utterances and plots to destabilise the South-West.
The Oyo governor, by his Chief Press Secretary, Dr Sulaimon Olanrewaju, in a dialog with The PUNCH, stated the federal government and the Oyo PDP wouldn’t give up the state to the APC.
Olanrewaju stated the Oyo governor aligned with a press release by the appearing Publicity Secretary of the Oyo PDP, Micheal Ogunsina, who tackled Ganduje over the takeover plot.
Ogunsina, in his assertion, stated it was unfathomable for the APC to imagine that the folks of Oyo State would abandon the “oasis of peace, ease and good governance” underneath the Makinde authorities for “devastation, ache, sorrow, and tears.”
Fairly than speak about state seize, the Oyo PDP stated it could have anticipated the APC-led Federal Authorities to preoccupy itself with methods to ease the burden imposed on Nigerians by their alleged mistaken insurance policies.
“It’s a disgrace that as a substitute of easing folks’s burden, what preoccupies the thoughts of the APC and its management are the seize of states and the kidnapping of individuals’s destinies. The place then is the distinction between what the APC does and what forest bandits do?
“Our individuals are bored with a celebration and folks which can be progressive solely in title. Ganduje and his cohorts who need to prolong the pains of APC to Oyo State ought to cease plotting towards God and the folks. We reject the curse from Ganduje and his APC; our God, who hates the depraved, rejects them too.
“Our state has been an oasis of peace, ease and good governance within the midst of the ruins wreaked by the APC throughout the nation. We don’t intend to give up our freedom to predators. And we is not going to.
“Maybe we should always let the APC folks know that no smart individual in Oyo State desires to be inflicted with higher pains than what the folks bear now from APC’s misrule.
“A ruling celebration with a conscience would, by now, be working very onerous to restore the harm it has carried out to the economic system of our nation and the funds of the folks. However, as a result of APC can not give what it doesn’t have, it’s not involved in any respect in regards to the folks’s plight. Its politics is solely about grabbing energy, capturing states and snatching folks’s pleasure,” the Oyo PDP stated.
Talking with our correspondent, Makinde, by his Chief Press Secretary, Sulaimon Olanrewaju, stated the celebration spoke his thoughts.
On his half, Adeleke in a press release signed by his media aide, Olawale Rasheed, stated the APC Nationwide Chairman’s place contrasted sharply with Tinubu’s democratic credentials.
“As a well-read politician, one would have anticipated Dr Ganduje to know that electoral contests rely totally on native indexes and elements and what’s obtained in Edo and Ondo are certainly completely different from political details on the bottom in Osun State. Native permutations, grievances, and pursuits dictate how folks vote reasonably than superimposed drive.
“Osun State is the cradle of Yoruba folks the place political freedom is cherished and the place resistance to electoral fraud is a powerful custom. Ganduje is a menace to democracy and an insider enemy of President Tinubu.
“If Dr Ganduje actually loves Mr President, why is he pushing to destabilise the President’s house zone by open threats to violate electoral legislation and deny the citizens their rights to vote and be voted for? By threatening to hijack opposition states, the APC chief is undermining the consensus amongst Yoruba folks, which settle for Mr President as their very own regardless of political variations.
“If nonetheless the assertion of the APC chief is borne out of ignorance, he’s invited to review Osun politics to get higher knowledgeable of the dynamics of this state’s politics and to understand that what works in Edo and Ondo can not play out right here for a number of causes,” Adeleke stated.
Equally, the PDP Deputy Nationwide Youth Chief, Timothy Osadolor, on Monday accused the ruling APC of manipulating the Ondo and Edo State governorship elections.
Osadolor additionally vowed that they might rally thousands and thousands of Nigerians to oppose the APC’s try and take management of Oyo, Osun, and different states at present ruled by the opposition celebration.
He stated, “It’s a wishful assertion and an alarming assertion on the similar time that must be condemned by all well-meaning Nigerians. What occurred in Edo and Ondo states aren’t elections, however manipulations to put in their chosen candidates. It’s a energy seize and really harmful for our democracy.
“The system is being run as if we function a one-party system, reasonably than the multi-party system that we’ve got. The APC-led Federal Authorities is extra targeted on utilizing safety to attain electoral victory, reasonably than utilizing safety for the good thing about all.
“Fairly than specializing in insecurity and financial challenges, the ruling celebration is worried about priding itself on the way it rigged its approach into energy from one state to a different within the office-cycle elections.”
The Chairman of the New Nigeria Peoples Occasion in Osun State, Dr. Tosin Odeyemi, additionally cautioned Ganduje towards inciting political rigidity within the South-West together with his current feedback.
Odeyemi described his remarks as reckless and unbecoming of an elder statesman, particularly given the present financial hardships Nigerians are enduring underneath the present authorities.
“One would have anticipated Dr. Ganduje to exhibit higher communication expertise befitting his place. With the financial challenges Nigerians are going through, who would willingly vote for the APC? Ganduje shouldn’t be carried away by what transpired in Ondo State.”
“Osun individuals are sensible and peace-loving. Every celebration should permit voters to determine freely. Ganduje should not flip the South-West right into a conflict zone. Spoken phrases carry weight, and 2026 should be crisis-free in Osun,” he added.
Equally, the Nationwide Publicity Secretary of the Labour Occasion, Obiora Ifoh, referred to as for restraint, saying such a press release can incite violence.
Ifoh additionally stated he didn’t see the APC taking on your complete South-West both now or within the close to future.
He stated, “I sympathise with the APC Nationwide Chairman as a result of his celebration has failed Nigerians. We now have discovered from previous errors. The worry that the APC will take over the South-West is just not there. Oyo State, as I talked to you, is just not underneath the APC. Osun too is just not underneath the ruling celebration’s management. So there isn’t any approach they will take over the entire of the South-West. It isn’t going to work.
“I need to additionally let that the starvation disaster in Nigeria at present is felt extra within the South-West, exterior the North. So, I ponder what would be the incentive for anyone to ask this authorities to proceed with the scenario.”