Group canvasses support for Makinde’s re-election
The former Governor of Oyo State, Senator Rasheed Ladoja and a former Deputy Governor of the state, Azeem Gbolarumi, among other critical stakeholders across different political platforms, may have tactically agreed to work for the flagbearer of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 11, 2023 gubernatorial election in Oyo State, Senator Teslim Folarin.
Ladoja, who met with Folarin’s team, yesterday, was said to have directed his loyalists, traders and council of traditional rulers, among others, to work for APC in the coming governorship and state Assembly polls, scheduled to hold this Saturday.
Folarin also met with the South-West leader of the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP), Alhaji Bisi Olopoeyan, who confirmed his meeting with the APC gubernatorial candidate but said the endorsement would be announced officially on Thursday.
“We are still discussing. If necessary agreements are finalised and our members properly briefed, then we go public. We are yet to endorse but discussion has reached an advanced stage,” Olopoeyan said.
In a similar vein, the original members of Oyo PDP, led by Gbolarumi and a former Minister of Power and Steel, Elder Wole Oyelese, have also met with Folarin and the APC to deliberate on possible relationship ahead of the gubernatorial and state Assembly elections.
Gbolarumi, when contacted, confirmed the meeting, but said they were yet to endorse any particular candidate. Other parties Folarin and APC have met ahead of Saturday’s polls include Oyo State chapter of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), African Action Congress (AAC) and a faction of Labour Party (LP).
Chairman, Oyo APC Central Media Council, Presidential and Gubernatorial Campaigns Council, Mr. Kehinde Olaosebikan, said there were series of meetings ongoing among leaders of political parties in the state, saying that “latest by Thursday or Friday, the outcome of the meeting would be made public.”
MEANWHILE, a group, operating under the aegis of Oyo For Makinde (OFM), has implored Oyo State people to troop out en-masse on Saturday and vote for Governor Seyi Makinde to ensure his victory at the polls.
According to OFM’s Director, Tokunbo Olaitan, in a statement made available to journalists yesterday in Ibadan, doing this would enable Makinde to complete his good works, which had been to the benefit of the people of the state and applauded by indigenes and non-indigenes across the country and outside.
The group, which is a grassroots mobilisation campaign outfit operating under the theme, “Arise Larika,” had since last year November commenced a statewide campaign for the re-election bid of Makinde by showcasing his modest achievements in the last three years through visuals.
According to the OFM Director, the group was able to beam the recorded activities of Makinde’s administration in over 400 locations across the 33 local councils of the state with the reception being overwhelming, signposting the genuine love the people of the state have for the governor.
“We have gone round the state with our visual campaigns to showcase the modest achievements of GSM in the last four years or thereabout, and we can conveniently say that he is greatly appreciated and widely accepted by the people of the state,” Olaitan maintained.
Olaitan, who expressed optimism that Makinde would emerge victorious at Saturday’s governorship polls, implored the electorate to translate the love they have for the governor to enable him clinch the second term diadem as governor of the state.
“Our people should defy the antics of the oppositions in the state who may want to scare them away from voting. Never allow them to intimidate you before and during the election. Already, defeat is starring the oppositions on their faces,” the group added.
Meanwhile, OFM has appealed to the people of the state to remain calm and be law-abiding before, during and after the election so as to allow peace to continue unabated.
