For the election on Saturday, Teslim Folarin, a candidate for governor from the All Progressives Congress (APC), has received the support of Rasheed Ladoja, a former governor of Oyo State.
Under the Peoples Democratic Party’s platform, Mr. Ladoja served as the state’s governor from 2003 until 2007. (PDP). After making the switch to the Zenith Labour Party in December 2018, he successfully organised a coalition of parties to support Seyi Makinde in the 2019 election.
Yet as a result of accusations that Mr. Makinde had broken the terms of their agreement, the alliance disintegrated.
The former governor is still a significant political player in the state despite not being active in the ZLP or joining the PDP again.
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His political family stated on Thursday that they were backing Mr. Folarin of the APC.
At a gathering with his supporters on Saturday in Ibadan, Mr. Ladoja encouraged them as well as other state voters to support the APC governorship candidate.
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The former governor voiced his disgust with Mr. Makinde over how he handled the National Assembly elections on February 25 in the state where the APC won the majority of the seats.
“All three senators running on the Peoples Democratic Party platform lost in the recently concluded National Assembly elections. Also, the history of the person in authority is being discussed here, not only the history of Oyo State. This was demonstrated in Osun State, he claimed.
“Despite only being in office for three months, the governor of Osun State, Ademola Adeleke, was able to secure all of the House of Representatives and senate seats for Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidates during the recently held National Assembly elections. We also need to be aware of the odd situation Osun State is in since Bola Tinubu, the next president, is from there, he said.
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The former governor said that the PDP’s House of Representatives and senatorial candidates had no support from Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde after being chosen to represent the state in the National Assembly.
“He didn’t give a single one of them a word to the people or spend any money to assist them. Even God abhors unfair and unjust behaviours,” he stated.
In order to vote for Teslim Folarin, the All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate for governor in the state, on March 18, please stop all you are doing that day.
Also, Mr. Ladoja asked the APC’s disgruntled members to look behind the party’s governorship candidate’s flaws.
“Olopoeyan, one of our top PDP mobilizers, recently switched allegiances to the APC. The Oyo State chapters of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) have also chosen Teslim Folarin as their preferred candidate for governor, he said.
“A few political parties have already expressed interest in adopting Folarin. But I think everything will be resolved in the upcoming days. Please vote for Folarin in the upcoming gubernatorial race, I beg my supporters to vote for me, he continued.
In addition, I ask that everyone forgave him for any offences he may have committed in the past.
Mr. Ladoja served as both Mr. Folarin’s and Mr. Makinde’s political father.
He served as the leader of the coalition that supported Mr. Makinde’s victory in the 2019 election; however, the coalition disintegrated six months later on the grounds that Mr. Makinde had allegedly violated a previously agreed-upon formula for sharing the appointment of commissioners and other political office holders to his government.
The coalition’s members were the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The reported deal stated that PDP would receive 64% of the appointments, followed by ADC with 30%, ZLP with 5%, and SDP with 1%.
Yet after the election, Mr. Makinde refuted the existence of such an arrangement. Yet, Mr. Ladoja frequently insisted—even during public gatherings—that an agreement existed and chastised the governor for saying otherwise.
Some PDP leaders, according to a source, have been convinced to work for Mr. Folarin by Mr. Ladoja, with the exception of Taofeek Arapaja, a former deputy governor who is now the PDP’s deputy national chairman and who is working with Mr. Makinde.
The source said that Mr. Ladoja had spoken with a segment of the state’s Muslim population, which was already upset with Mr. Makinde for removing Rauf Olaniyan, his initial deputy governor and a native of the mostly Muslim region of Oke-Ogun, from office.
Several of the members who were defeated in the 25 February National Assembly elections are reportedly working against Mr. Makinde and are Mr. Ladoja’s allies.
