On Monday, some candidates for the state House of Assembly from Oyo State’s Obidient Movement and the Labour Party distanced themselves from the endorsement of Governor Seyi Makinde as their preferred candidate for Saturday’s governorship election.
Ayodeji Babalola, a candidate for the House of Assembly from Ibadan South-East Constituency II, read a communique that made this clear.
Following a meeting that took place at the Obi/Datti Campaign Office in Oke-Ado, Ibadan, Babalola spoke with journalists.
Babalola jointly signed the press release; Kayode Adejumo-Bello, II Constituency of Ibadan North; Oluwatoyin Okunlola, Oluyole Constituency, Temidayo Taiwo, Ibadan South-West Constituency II, and Sumonu Musa, Ibadan North-East Constituency II.
“Our attention has been drawn to a news item making the rounds in both the traditional and social media on the declaration of support for the Peoples Democratic Party and All Progressive Congress by some minority factions of the leadership of Labour Party in Oyo State towards the forthcoming gubernatorial and state House of Assembly elections in the state, an action that was taken unilaterally and in pursuit of personal agenda and aggrandizement,” read the communique that Babalola read.
“The movement and all candidates hereby completely dissociate themselves from the egotistical position of those insignificant and avaricious elements.” This desperate move should be avoided by everyone in the public.
“We would like to make it clear that the Obi-dient Movement is a collection of more than 120 support groups who are drawn to politics by their interest in Peter Obi’s aspiration to become the President of this great country. This is why the movement is called Obi-dient; hence the name.
Therefore, the majority of us are both ardent supporters of the Obi-dient Movement and Labour Party card-carrying members. This same support for our master extends to all party candidates nationwide and to Oyo state specifically.
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“All Obidient members are hereby urged to remain calm and maintain the status quo ante bellum while we go out en masse on Saturday to massively vote for all of our state assembly candidates and our gubernatorial candidate, Taofiq Akinwale,” reads the statement.
However, Femi Akin-Alamu, the Labour Party’s candidate for the National Assembly in the Ibadan North Federal Constituency, insisted that the party had selected Makinde as its candidate for governor.
In a statement released on Monday in Ibadan, Akin-Alamu said that Makinde had demonstrated vision and the desire to create a modern Oyo State.
He stated, “After much thought, prayer, and discussion with the leadership of the Labour Party in the state, I, along with other leaders of the Labour Party in the state, have decided to give our full and unreserved support to the person who we believe stands way above others in our assessment.”
We can’t preach a different gospel when it seems to be against our party’s candidate. Party reliability can’t be placed above open great. After the presidential election, the leadership of the LP met with the party’s gubernatorial candidate for a review and determined that it was better to support Governor Makinde’s re-election campaign.