Oyo 2023: We’ve No Agreement With Makinde – APC-PCC Says

…As Folarin castigates gov. over N500m lavished on aggrieved PDP candidates

The expectations and hope of one of the members of the G-5 led by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, to benefit from his alleged support for the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his second term ambition may have been dashed.

This followed the position of the APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) which expressly declared that it had no standing agreement whatsoever with Makinde for any kind of support for votes as being speculated.

The APC PCC which was reacting to an alleged meeting Makinde had with aggrieved candidates of the PDP for the National Assembly seats during which the governor begged them for their support for the March 11, 2023 Governorship election with a view to defecting to the APC in the future, noted that Makinde could not had told them the truth.

It was gathered that Makinde allegedly told the aggrieved National Assembly candidates who lost their seats as a result of the activities of the governor with G-5, said that he had agreement with the president-elect, Asiwaju Tinubu of defecting to the APC after the February 2023 Governorship election which was approved.

However, a member of the APC-PCC in Oyo State, Queen Nike Ajagbe, stressed that Makinde was only deceiving members of his party, adding that the visit of the Tinubu/Shettima Campaign team had nothing whatsoever to do with any endorsement of the governor.

Ajagbe explained that the president-elect is 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.

In the words of Ajagbe; “It was in the programme of events of the Campaign Council to visit all the opposition governors whenever they are in their state for campaign, hence nobody should see it as endorsement but a privilege to host a widely accepted presidential candidate”.

Queen Ajagbe, who is a member of the Directorate of Special Duties 3 of the APC-PCC, further explained that the president-elect only visited Governor Makinde as he did to other opposition governors whenever he visited their states.

She gave the instance of Rivers and other state governors where the president-elect visited the Government House before proceeding on campaigns.

According to her; “I was part of all the visits of the president-elect to Makinde and no agreement was reached between the campaign team and Makinde.

“And for Makinde to know that Tinubu is a party man, immediately he left the governor’s office, he went straight to the ancient Mapo Hall to raise the hands of the governorship candidate of our party, Senator Teslim Folarin,” she stressed.

Ajagbe therefore expressed surprised at the claims by Makinde that he had agreement with the president-elect during the visit to his office in in Ibadan, especially when he remarked that people of the state should vote for unity and equity of the country during the governorship debate on Splash FM.

In a related development, the governorship candidate of the APC in Oyo State, Senator Teslim Kolawole Folarin has castigated Governor Makinde for extravagantly lavishing N500million on PDP aggrieved legislative candidates that lost return tickets and other stakeholders.

Folarin, in a statement by his media aide, YSO Olaniyi noted that by such action, Makinde has demonstrated that he has nothing to offer the good people of the state than spending lavishly to please his party men.

The APC governorship candidate noted that it was the same way Makinde was spending the state resources on private jet while fighting for the so called G-5 governors in his party.

He therefore urged the people of the state to vote massively for the APC in the March 11, Governorship election in order to align the party with the party at the federal level.