What To Know About Major Oyo Guber Candidates Seeking To Unseat Makinde

Governor Seyi Makinde and fourteen (14) other candidates would share ballots in the Saturday, March 11, governorship elections in Oyo State.

Following the completion of the presidential, senate and house of representatives elections held last Saturday, Nigerians are now focussed on the gubernatorial elections that will be held across 31 of 36 states of Nigeria next weekend.

Naija News understands that the election for next weekend would be for both governorship and house of assembly candidates, as earlier announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Read below a brief biography of major candidates contesting the governorship seat in Oyo State, including Makinde.

Governor Makinde

The incumbent Governor of Oyo State has enjoyed a single term of four years but now seeking re-election still on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Makinde’s re-election bid may have suffered a setback after seeing how state residents voted massively for the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, in the just concluded presidential polls.

Recall that Oyo State is one of the South-West states won by Tinubu. Makinde had collaborated with a faction of the PDP called the G5 or Integrity Group to sabotage the victory of the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in last Saturday’s presidential elections.

Teslim Folarin

Folarin is seen as the major rival of PDP’s Governor Makinde. The 59-year-old politician is contesting on the All Progressive Congress (APC) platform.

Naija News reports that Folarin is the son of Alhaji and Alhaja Hamzat Folarin. He stemmed from Baale House in the Oja Igbo area of Ibadan North-East Local Government area of Oyo State.

The APC chieftain is the Senator representing Oyo Central Senatorial District at the National Assembly. Folarin had contested and won the senatorial seat to represent Oyo Central in 2003 at the age of 39 years on the platform of the PDP and was re-elected for a second term in 2007 on the platform of the same PDP.

Folarin, the only legislator in Oyo State that has served two terms at the Senate, is now seeking to succeed Makinde on the APC platform.

Popoola Olukayode Joshua

The 60-year-old politician is the flag-bearer of the New Nigeria Peoples’ Party (NNPP).

Naija News understands that the gubernatorial candidate is a COREN Registered Engineer, a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Nigeria (FNSE), Nigerian Institute of Highways and Transportation Engineers (FNIHTE) and Nigerian Institute of Civil Engineer (FNICE) with vast experience in the construction and infrastructure sector.

Joshua had worked with the Federal Civil Service Commission and served with the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing in 1988 as a Pupil Engineer.

He has also worked on Federal road projects such as the Rehabilitations of Zaria-Samaru Road, Kaduna-Western Bye Pass, and Auchi-Ekperi-Agenebode in Edo State among others.

Joshua is running the NNPP ticket with a female deputy, Alhaja Atinuke Adesope.

Adebayo Adelabu

Penkelemesi, as he is fondly known, is a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The 52-year-old economist turned politician joined the Oyo State governorship race on the Accord platform.

Adelabu was a former member of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Speaking on why he left the CBN to join politics in the previous election, Adelabu said, he left the corporate world so he could help turn around the fortune of Oyo State when elected as Governor.