The immediate-past gubernatorial candidate of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) in Ekiti state, Otunba Segun Adewale, has urged major opposition parties in Osun state to work together in unity so as to dislodge the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the forthcoming governorship election in the state.
He gave the charge while responding to questions from newsmen in Lagos at the weekend.
Adewale advised all oppositions to jointly present a candidate of the “most accepted and popular party” and team up by a way of forming alliance before going into the September 22nd election to defeat the APC candidate, Mr Gboyega Oyetola.
He said his inability to win in Ekiti was due to lack of resources, saying any party that must take lead in the Osun arrangement must be able to generate enough resources to match the ruling APC.
“What is important at this moment is how to rescue Osun from further poverty, debt, unemployment and executive rascality; all actors should put aside their ego and work together for the sake of the Osun people at this critical time,” he said.
He emphatically noted that Alhaji Moshood Adeoti of the ADP, Senator Iyiola Omisore of the SDP and Senator Ademola Adeleke of the PDP must be ready to work out an alliance and present a single candidate “if at all they are ready to win and send those they don’t want away from powers.”
According to him, all what the parties involved needs to do is to set up a committee, to pick the most popular political party with the wider and formidable structure, that the Osun people can vote for, then sign Memorandum of Understanding on power sharing arrangement which should be fairly distributed and accordingly. “The joy of each of them in the end should be that none of them lost out to the APC,” he said.
He said that PDP, ADP and SDP won’t be in contention with the APC but the federal powers which include INEC, Police, CBN money, Army and other security agencies.
Adewale said that, apart from the federal agencies that the APC-led Federal government will deploy to the state to allegedly rig the election as they had demonstrated in Ondo and Ekiti elections, the amount of money they will pump on that day just to secure people’s votes may not be easily matched by any of the opposition candidates if they go into the election individually.
He pointed out that the Trader Moni is one of such tricks to buy votes, saying if not so, why would they be demanding for the PVC details of beneficiaries on the application form.
“Buhari’s 2019 re-election is the main reason APC is all out with our resources to take states in the South West, by all possible means.
“Electorates may not vote based on the good manifesto but act based on what they are given on the election day; the stake is very higher now and that APC won’t mind to pay N20, 000 per vote in their “See and Buy” method aided by police and INEC.”
The Ekiti-born business tycoon however said all the grey areas where the oppositions may be rigged can be blocked if all the major parties can come together to form a critical mass and work in unity to combat the APC.
“I am willing to help out, to work with Osun stakeholders on how to achieve victory,” he said.
