The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State has warned that if Governor Seyi Makinde is re-elected for a second term in office in 2023, the state would be in a complete mess.
In a statement released by the state secretary of the party, Alhaji Tajudeen Olanite, in Ibadan on Monday, the party warned the public about the way Governor Makinde had been allegedly using state resources to allegedly empower thugs.
The party further alleged that some of the said thugs had been linked to some killings in the state, as well as threats against the lives of innocent Nigerians who were not supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which formed the current government.
The APC spoke against the backdrop of a threat to assassinate Senator Teslim Kolawole Folarin, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Content and the party’s candidate for governor of the state in 2023.
Olanite further alleged that the threat against Folarin’s life was made by the former factional leader of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in the state, Alhaji Mukaila Lamidi (Auxiliary), who was appointed in February 2020 by Governor Makinde as the head of the disciplinary panel for the Park Management System (PMS) of the Oyo State Government.
According to the statement, a viral video footage that had been circulating on social media in recent days had made the public aware of the threat to kill Folarin.
The statement read in part: “Governor Seyi Makinde does not deserve a second term in office. During this outgoing first term of his, he has made our dear state retrogress in terms of thuggery and hooliganism, which the immediate past governor, the late Senator Abiola Ajimobi, tamed effectively for eight years.
“Apart from the threat to the life of the Distinguished Senator Folarin, the same Auxiliary and scores of his thugs have clamped down on the billboards and posters of the opposition parties, and predominantly, the leading opposition party in the state, APC. Auxiliary has been leading heavily armed thugs to destroy APC billboards and posters in different parts of Ibadan and the state.
“The billboard destruction by Auxiliary and his thugs, engaged by the PDP government in Oyo State is tagged: ‘Operation Destroy APC Billboard and Posters’. They have also started the destruction of shops at Dugbe Alawo and Ogunpa, being operated by people they believed are not favourably disposed to the second-term bid of Governor Makinde.
“It is an attempt to silence opposition and turn Oyo into a one-party state. The PDP-led administration is very intolerant of opposition in the state because they know that they have failed woefully and they don’t have any good things to offer the good people of the state.
“But we have a mandate to rescue the state from the hands of these clueless, distracted, promise-breaking, rookies in governance, and promoters of thuggery fellows. We shall not be deterred by their antics. We shall ensure the liberation of the good people of this state from the claws of these political hawks that have been reported to be in government to steal, kill and destroy.”
Consequently, the APC appealed to the Police over commencing investigations into the threat to the life of Senator Folarin ahead of the 2023 elections. (RipplesNigeria)