Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, alongside some Southwest leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Friday received thousands of defectors from various political parties to its fold ahead of next month’s governorship election in the state.
The defectors, who include members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Labour Party, and NNPP, attributed the reasons for dumping their parties to the candidate of the party, Agboola Ajayi.
According to the defectors, who said they decided to dump the party because of the prevailing hardship under the ruling party, they were motivated by the leadership quality of the PDP candidate.
While receiving the decampees, Makinde assured the PDP that the PDP, Ajayi, will return the lost glory of the state the moment he is sworn in as governor in February 2025.
The Oyo state governor said “The current administration had compromised our livelihoods, particularly through farmland allocations to foreign investors without due compensation.
Speaking, the Director General of the Campaign Group, Engr. Clement Faboyede, said all the developmental projects put in place by the PDP government had been abandoned.
He assured them that Agboola would return their lands that had been taken away from them by the present administration.
Faboyede said that the people of Odigbo should not be bothered as Ajayi will perform excellently well, just like the PDP governors in Oyo and Osun states have been performing.
He noted that it was the government of the PDP that developed Odigbo before the APC took over and bastardised everything.
A former commissioner in Ondo State, Mrs Lydia Olafunmiloye, said the emergence of Ajayi is good luck to the people of Ondo State, saying the APC administration had brought so much hardship into the country.
Olafunmiloye urged voters not to allow themselves to be deceived with financial inducement, saying APC is planning to use it to buy the conscience of the voters.
Speaking, the Chairman of the Campaigns Council, Eddy Olafeso, PhD, appreciated Governor Seyi Makinde for his support and enjoined voters to vote for good governance by using their votes to send away the government of oppressors.
Also speaking, the Deputy Governorship Candidate, Hon. Festus Akingbaso, urged the youth in the local government to vote for the party to ensure positive development in the state.
Akingbaso assured the youths that he will make sure that they aren’t left out of the scheme of things immediately after the PDP takes over power from the APC.
Akingbaso, a member of the House of Representatives, also urged the people not to be resolute in voting for the PDP, saying, “You must use force to liberate yourselves from slavery.”
The governorship candidate of the PDP, Hon. Agboola Ajayi, asked the people to be prayerful so that God can take the party to power during the election.
According to him, his administration will give attention to education, health, infrastructure, employment, security, agriculture, youth and women’s empowerment and some other areas.
He assured farmers in the area that all their farmlands forcefully taken from them will be returned to them, while farmers will be adequately taken care of.
Ajayi assured that the APC won’t be able to rig the election because they are no longer popular in Ondo State.
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