By Adeyinka Adeniran
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo state has said it is perfecting plans with local government leaders to ensure they secure more votes for President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 election beyond what was delivered in 2023.
This is as the Oyo State representative in the Federal Character Commission (FCC), Prince Ayodele Abass-Aleshinloye appealed to the national leadership of the party to consider former elected local government chairmen to enjoy the privilege of being automatic delegates at party’s congresses and conventions.
Oyo state Chairman of the party, Otunba Moses Adeyemo said the party has learnt from it’s experiences and can only maintain unity among its members to ensure a return to the Agodi Government House, Ibadan in the 2027 polls.
He spoke while fielding questions from reporters shortly after playing host to the umbrella body of former chairmen and councillors in the state under the aegis of Forum 68 who paid him a congratulatory visit on the occasion of the emergence of a new State Executive Committee (SEC) in the state.
Adeyemo said, “If you are listening to what is happening in APC now, in 2023 we had factions. By the grace of God, I don’t like to go too much into details.
“All the factions have come together to be in one particular family. But in order not to make this thing disperse again, we are stressing on the importance of unity.
“So, we are united now, but we pray to God that nothing will happen to us again. We are very, very confident that by 2027 our party is coming to governance.”
Speaking on how to achieve more votes in the 2027 elections, he said “Well, we are achieving it because you can see our grassroots chairmen. They will go back to their various local governments and make sure that they campaign, you know, they tell them where to go.
“Luckily for us, PDP is no more. So, we are very, very certain that things will work as we planned. We have appealed to them and we continue to appeal to them. Because it’s through appeal that we can get more people. So, we are appealing, we are, you know, telling them too, those who are hurt, they should be patient, because by the grace of God, if we are able to come to governance, so many vacancies are there for us to distribute. So, we are just appealing and we continue to appeal.”
Speaking on the demands of the Oke Ogun zone for the governorship ticket to be zone there, the party Chairman maintained that, whatever the decision of the party should be accepted by all zones in good interest.
Also speaking, Aleshinloye who is the Chairman of the Forum 68 explained that elected chairman, like other elected officers, should be included as delegates.
He said members of the Forum were at the party Secretariat to congratulate the new leadership as well as pledge allegiance and discuss the success of the party in the forthcoming election.
The FCC Commissioner said “Having automatic representation at the congress or the convention of the party is key because this present government believes in the grassroot governance, believes in the autonomy of the third tier of government, and of course, if they believe that if you are an elected chairman, if you so believe, then it means that as elected chairman, that is rooted at the grassroot, that governs at the grassroot, it should be allowed to represent that grassroot at the national convention of the party. It is not a matter of your state, it should be included in the constitution.
“I know that the constitution is undergoing review now. As it’s been done, we are just saying this because we have been advocates of local government autonomy. We fought for it, we fought the Seyi Makinde government when he sent us packing at that time.
“We won at all levels of court. At the Supreme Court, we got judgement against him, and we have no reluctance since then in making sure that we make grassroot governance to be a thing that will be respected in this country. So for us, to give more respect to the chairman at the grassroot, we want them to be recognized and be asked to be part of the national convention anytime it’s been done.
“This year, maybe this one is gone, but subsequently, I want that to be done. And that is what my people, we have 68 chairmen under late governor Ajimobi, and we are still together, 68 vice-chairmen, and we have 610 councillors by number. So all these people will meet together, you can see their representatives here today, and we still meet from different zones.
“And this is going to be the nucleus of this party, because the present chairman, he was the deputy governor when all these LCDAs and local government were created. So he knows about us, he knows that this thing will help the party so much.
“Even in the last election, when there was division in the party, Oyo state still gave the highest vote to President Tinubu, and I’m telling you, we are going to double that by God’s grace this time around.”
