LP Candidates Distance Selves From Gov. Makinde’s Re-election Endorsement

By Akinwale Kasali

Members of the Labour Party, LP,  in the Oyo State vying for elective positions to the State House of Assembly, have distanced themselves from the endorsement of Governor Seyi Makinde by a faction of the Party.

Last Sunday, a faction of the Party had openly endorsed the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Governorship Candidate, who is the incumbent Governor for a second term, which didn’t augur well with some of the Party faithfuls who condemned the it in its entirety.

The Party candidates contesting for the State House of Assembly, distanced themselves from accepting  Governor  Makinde as their consesus candidate for Saturday’s Governorship election.

They  made this known in a communique read by one of the House of Assembly Candidates, Ayodeji Babalola from Ibadan South-East Constituency II.

At the Obi/Datti Campaign Office in Oke Ado, Ibadan, Babalola spoke to journalists where he distanced themselves from the endorsement of Makinde.

The press statement was jointly signed by Babalola;  Kayode Adejumo-Bello, Ibadan North Constituency II; Temidayo Taiwo, Ibadan South-West Constituency II, Oluwatoyin Okunlola, Oluyole Constituency and Sumonu Musa, Ibadan North-East Constituency II.

It reads: “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 aggrandisement.

“The movement and all candidates hereby totally dissociate themselves from the selfish stand of those negligible and greedy elements. The entire public is hereby put on notice to beware of this desperate move.

“We like to put it on record that, the Obi-dient Movement is an assemblage of over 120 support groups who are attracted to politics by their interest in the aspiration of Peter Obi to become the President of this great country, hence the coinage, Obi-dient.

“Therefore, majority of us are card-carrying members of Labour Party and at the same time very staunch members of the Obi-dient Movement. This same support for our master is unequivocally extended to all candidates of the party nationwide and in Oyo state particularly.

“In the light of the declaration, it therefore becomes incumbent on us to come out clearly to declare our stand on the declaration of these factions of leaders within the Labour Party in the state.

“All Obidient members are hereby urged to remain calm, maintain status quo ante bellum, while we go out en masse on Saturday to massively vote for all our state assembly candidates and our gubernatorial candidate, Taofiq Akinwale.”

But the  candidate of Labour Party in Ibadan North Federal Constituency for the National Assembly elections, Femi Akin-Alamu, insisted that the party had adopted Makinde as its governorship candidate.

Akin-Alamu, in a statement, on Monday, in Ibadan, said Makinde had shown vision and the desire to engineer a modern Oyo State.

He said, “After much thoughts, prayers and consultation with the leadership of Labour Party in the state, I, together with other leaders of the Labour Party in the state, have decided to give our full and unreserved support to the person that we believe stands way above others in our assessment.

“We cannot preach a different gospel when it seems not to favour the candidate of our party. Party loyalty cannot be put above public good. The leadership of LP has met with the party’s gubernatorial candidate for a review after the presidential election and arrived at the realisation that it was better to support the re-election bid of Governor Makinde.”

According to Akin-Alamu, the Labour Party’s governorship candidate, Tawfiq Akinwale, had not convinced the leadership of the party on his preparedness, in terms of funding and others, for the Saturday’s poll.

“He was requested to tell the assembly his plans, vision, strategy and budget for the election. He was also requested to tell how much he has to spend for the elections and if there was any shortfall between his budget and how much he had,” he added, saying rather than answer,  Akinwale was upset about the questions.