Governors Seyi Makinde of Oyo State and Ademola Adeleke of Osun have criticised the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Abdullahi Ganduje, for claiming that the APC would take over Oyo and Osun states after winning Ondo State on Saturday.
Ganduje spoke with journalists in Akure on Sunday after the Independent National Electoral Commission declared Lucky Aiyedatiwa as the winner of the Saturday governorship election in Ondo State.
Ganduje had said, “Our next target now is the South-West geopolitical zone, and you know we are good at hitting the target, and this is Osun State and Oyo State. We will do all that is possible to bring them into the fold so that we have political homogeneity in the South-West geopolitical zone.”
However, on Monday, Oyo State Governor Makinde dismissed Ganduje’s claim as wishful thinking, while Osun Governor Adeleke warned the APC National Chairman against anti-democratic remarks and plans to undermine the South-West.
The Oyo governor, through his Chief Press Secretary, Dr. Sulaimon Olanrewaju, stated that the administration and the Oyo PDP would not hand over the state to the APC.
Olanrewaju claimed the Oyo governor agreed with a statement issued by the Oyo PDP’s acting publicity secretary, Michael Ogunsina, who confronted Ganduje about the takeover attempt.
Ogunsina, in his statement, mentioned that it was unfathomable for the APC to believe that the people of Oyo State would abandon the “oasis of peace, ease, and good governance” under the Makinde government for “devastation, pain, sorrow, and tears.”
Rather than discussing state capture, the Oyo PDP said it expected the APC-led Federal Government to focus on ways to alleviate the burden placed on Nigerians by their claimed erroneous policies.
“Our state has been an oasis of peace, ease, and good governance in the midst of the ruins wreaked by the APC across the country. We do not intend to surrender our freedom to predators. And we will not.
“Perhaps we should let the APC people know that no sensible person in Oyo State wants to be inflicted with greater pains than what the people bear now from APC’s misrule.
“A ruling party with a conscience would, by now, be working very hard to repair the damage it has done to the economy of our country and the finances of the people. But, because APC cannot give what it does not have, it is not concerned at all about the people’s plight. Its politics is solely about grabbing power, capturing states, and snatching people’s joy,” the Oyo PDP said.
Speaking through his Chief Press Secretary, Sulaimon Olanrewaju, Makinde said the party spoke his mind.
Adeleke, in a statement signed by his media aide, Olawale Rasheed, stated that the APC National Chairman’s position contrasted sharply with Tinubu’s democratic record.
“As a well-read politician, one would have expected Dr. Ganduje to know that electoral contests depend mostly on local indexes and factors, and what is obtained in Edo and Ondo is surely different from political facts on the ground in Osun State. Local permutations, grievances, and interests dictate how people vote rather than superimposed force.
“Osun State is the cradle of Yoruba people, where political freedom is cherished and resistance to electoral fraud is a strong tradition. Ganduje is a threat to democracy and an insider enemy of President Tinubu.
“If Dr. Ganduje truly loves Mr. President, why is he pushing to destabilise the President’s home zone through open threats to violate electoral law and deny the electorate their rights to vote and be voted for? By threatening to hijack opposition states, the APC leader is undermining the consensus among Yoruba people, which accept Mr. President as their own irrespective of political differences.
“If however the statement of the APC leader is borne out of ignorance, he is invited to study Osun politics to get better informed of the dynamics of this state’s politics and to appreciate that what works in Edo and Ondo cannot play out here for several reasons,” Adeleke said.
In the same vein, the National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Obiora Ifoh, called for restraint, saying such a statement can incite violence.
Ifoh also stated that he didn’t see the APC taking over the entire Southwest either now or in the near future.
He said, “I sympathise with the APC National Chairman because his party has failed Nigerians. We have learnt from past mistakes. The fear that the APC will take over the South-West is not there. Oyo State, as I talked to you, is not under the APC. Osun too is not under the ruling party’s control. So there is no way they can take over the whole of the Southwest. It is not going to work.
“I want to also let you know that the hunger crisis in Nigeria today is felt more in the south-west, outside the north. So, I wonder what will be the incentive for anybody to ask this government to continue with the situation.”
