Oyo APC Groups Rejects Makinde; Press Secretary Debunks Otherwise

Some groups in Oyo State All Progressives Congress, APC, have said it will resist all Governor Seyi Makinde to join the party.
The groups who stated this yesterday includes the Oyo Solidarity Front, OSF, Oyo Progressives Resolute, OPR, and Oyo Sustainable Development Movement, OSDM.
In a joint statement by the groups’ chairmen and secretaries, they noted that the Oyo state Governor has become a leper and should not mix with ordinary, healthy people.

The statement reads thus: “He has been rejected by his party and its leadership in the South West and he is looking for a soft landing, he should move further than the APC”.
“He has always claimed to be popular. He should stake his popularity in any of the other political parties in the country, not in APC, where he has elevated his attack on the party leadership to a state policy.
“All the people that helped him to power are no longer with him.

Former Governor Ayodele Fayose was the person that handed over the PDP flag to him as party flag bearer; today, he is at loggerheads with his benefactor. His antics have left his party more divided, and many have deserted him. He would be an albatross on the neck of APC in Oyo State, and we will resist his attempt at joining our party.”
The signatories to the statement include Johnson Olooto, Shina Alubankudi, Waheed Olanrewaju, Sunday Olododo, Ibrahim Arikewusola and Daud Arapaja.

Meanwhile, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Taiwo Adisa, has accused the All Progressives Congress of plotting to lure the Governor to the party to avoid a heavy defeat in the 2023 governorship poll.
According to him, the APC is aware that they cannot pick any candidate that will match Makinde. Therefore, they want to lure Makinde to the party by all means.
He noted that the plot did not surprise, adding that the party was thrilled by the Governor’s achievements.
The statement read in part, “One is not surprised that some elements in the APC are busy debating the possibility of Governor Makinde’s defection to the party.

“The unprecedented achievements the Governor has recorded in a short time, especially despite the COVID-19 pandemic, has thoroughly beaten their imagination such that they have concluded it is impossible to raise a candidate to contest against him in 2023.
“As a close watcher of the GSM magic, so to say, one cannot be surprised that the APC in Oyo State is envious of the great attainments of Governor Makinde.
“However, rather than claim that Makinde wants to defect to the APC, the truth the APC elements should tell the world is that their party is attempting to lure the performing Governor to avert a woeful performance against him in 2023.

“Contrary to the claims of the APC members that the Governor has been soft against criticisms by its members, Governor Makinde has not bothered to respond to their baseless complaints in recent times but has chosen to remain focused on service delivery.
“We also completely reject the claims that his desire to join the APC informed the “soft approach” to the farmers/herders’ crisis.
“Rather, the Governor has remained on the side of the law and has always insisted that criminals, whichever tribe they belong, are our enemies, and they must be fished out without undue ethnic profiling.
“So, the best thing the APC could come up with right now is to imagine a Makinde as a standard-bearer so he could serve as a surreptitious redemption for the years of locust the party had inflicted on the people of Oyo State,” he added.