2023: Did Makinde Ever Declare Support For Tinubu Publicly? APC Queries

The Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has queried the reported contributions of the state governor, Seyi Makinde to the victory of the President-Elect, Bola Tinubu.

Naija News reports that this is as the Oyo APC insisted that Makinde never worked for Tinubu’s victory in any way as speculated in some quarters.

According to the Oyo State APC Public Relations Officer, Olawale Sadare, contrary to speculations and hearsays, Makinde never did any underground work for Tinubu’s win in the state.

He explained that the APC presented great candidates like it’s flag bearer, Tinubu and others so it was sure of victory in the state.

Answering to the fact that people thought Tinubu had a deal with Makinde when he visited him at the government house when the APC went to campaign in Oyo State, Sadare, told The Punch in an interview that Tinubu is too big to do such and as such he won’t involve himself in any anti party activities.

The Oyo APC spokesman said, “Tinubu is too big for any deal with Makinde. He only did what a statesman should have done at that time. He paid a courtesy visit to the state governor, he is a Yoruba man and there is nothing special about that.

“He did not even stay long at the state secretariat. He is an exposed Nigerian, he knows what to do at any given circumstance. Tinubu can never do anything anti-party; he is the national leader of the party. If anybody outside the APC feels that Tinubu is the best and should be supported, we welcome such individuals.”

Sadare advanced that, “We were very optimistic that our party, the All Progressives Congress, will record a fantastic outing in the presidential election. We presented a formidable candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, as our presidential candidate. We equally have formidable persons of Sharafadeen Alli as the candidate of our party for Oyo South Senatorial district, Yunus Akintunde for Oyo Central and Fatai Buhari representing Oyo North Senatorial who won for the third term.

“If you look at these candidates I have just mentioned not to talk of the candidates for the House of Representatives in all the 14 constituencies in the state, the APC in the state could boast of the best in terms of individuality, track records, experience and every other thing ascribed when it comes to rating the best candidate.

“Our party is the best among all other parties and APC is too unique for any other party to handle.

“Did he support Asiwaju? Did he ever come out boldly that he was supporting Asiwaju? All this hearsay does not matter in politics. Makinde as he stands today is a member and leader of the Peoples Democratic Party in Oyo State. He has never in time declared support for our party unless there is a video or text where he campaigned for APC or mentioned anything like APC.

“How did he work underground? Politics is not a hidden thing, even those who campaigned vigorously openly didn’t win, not to talk of someone who you claimed probably worked underground.

“Did he sponsor any campaign of APC or make a pronouncement that he was campaigning for our party? He did everything possible to work for his party at the state level but the fact remains that God crowns the efforts of APC in Oyo State and we are grateful that our candidates won the election.

“We have 14 seats in the House of Representatives, Oyo APC so far has won eight while PDP won four and I can say that we won the remaining two that are pending but the Independent National Electoral Commission had to declare Oluyole and Ibadan South East inconclusive. If you are talking about who takes the credit for the party’s victory, every individual that supported our party deserves the credit. I would rather tell you that we were able to record victory because we worked hard and we had a good candidate in the election.

“Certainly, we will replicate that victory on March 11. We have dotted all the ‘i’s and we are optimistic that Oyo State will have the opportunity to be in safe hands again. Our candidate, Teslim Folarin, will dislodge the incumbent and APC will retake the state assembly and place the state on the path of restoration, reformation and repositioning. We can’t afford to be in opposition again since Tinubu has been elected.”

Makinde, who is a governor on the platform of the PDP and a member of the five aggrieved governors of the party who refused to work for the party’s flag bearer, Atiku Abubakar.

The G5 had insisted that the PDP national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu resigned his position for a candidate of southern extraction.