The Osun State chapter of the Accord Party has asserted that the endorsement of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in next Saturday’s election by former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola, along with several Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders, will not impede Governor Ademola Adeleke’s chances of securing re-election.
In a statement he personally signed and obtained in Osogbo on Monday, Osun Accord Party Chairman, Victor Akande, alleged that Oyinlola, former Secretary to the State Government, Fatai Akinbade, and former Commissioner for Special Duties, Tajudeen Oladipo, worked against Adeleke’s election in 2022 but failed to stop the governor from winning.
Describing Oyinlola’s decision as being of no political consequence, Akande insisted that the former governor actually worked against Governor Adeleke in both 2018 and 2022.
Akande submitted that the trio rejoined the governor after his victory in 2022 and benefited greatly from the administration, affirming that the former governor had only gone back to his vomit.
“Osun Accord remains ever strong and Governor Adeleke remains unbeatable in the forthcoming polls. Those who left have never really supported the governor in previous election battles.
“In 2018 and 2022, they voted and worked against the governor. They failed to stop the governor’s victory. After they failed, they rejoined the governor and enjoyed positive treatment from the administration whose emergence they did not support.
“As another cycle of election is knocking again, they opportunistically moved back to a party that is killing and maiming Osun people. So their movement has no political effect on the re-election of Mr Governor.
“Go to their local governments; they lack the political capital to swing the people against a governor who is widely acknowledged locally and internationally to have positively transformed Osun State. The case of those defectors is made worse as Osun political grassroots see them as political ingrates and opportunists”, the Accord chairman said.
He tasked Osun people to strengthen their determination to re-elect the governor through ongoing grassroots mobilisation, expressing happiness that fifth columnists who never have an interest in good governance had left the winning platform.
It was earlier reported that a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party in Osun State, led by the former governor of the state, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, on Sunday declared support for the candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Saturday’s governorship poll, Bola Oyebamiji.
Oyinlola, speaking at the event held in Osogbo, where Oyebamiji’s ambition to become governor received the faction’s endorsement, stated that his group decided to part ways with the incumbent administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke due to a lack of inclusion in his handling of government affairs.
Oyinlola, joined by a former Secretary to the State Government, Mr Fatai Akinbade, and former PDP National Vice Chairman, Southwest, Alhaji Tajudeen Oladipo, however, declared that they were not dumping the PDP.
He added that the group adopted Oyebamiji’s candidature, “having considered the decision necessary and out of conviction and sincere desire for the progress of the state.”
