Residents of Ogun and Bauchi States in their numbers on Monday morning walked around some notable areas to throw their weight behind the declaration of Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, for the presidential race in 2023.
In Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, the residents walked with members of “The New Tribe” a support group for Osinbajo’s aspiration led by a three-time governorship candidate in the state, Prince Gboyega Nasir Isiaka, to declare their unflinching support for him.
The VP had in a seven-minute video released on his various social media platforms made known his intention to join the presidential race.
Speaking with newsmen, Isiaka said the walk was a show of solidarity and approval of Osinbajo’s declaration.
“This is in solidarity and approval of the declaration earlier today by Professor Yemi Osinbajo to run for the president of Nigeria in the 2023 elections which was broadcast this morning.
“This is being repeated in quite a number of other states from the reports I’m hearing and I think what it says is the approval of people for his candidacy and if you notice, this has been on for quite a while by various support groups, so what the support groups have done is just to come together and show appreciation for the declaration and also the readiness to work for him towards winning the election.
“From the speech that he delivered, I think everything is contained therein. He spoke about his capacity, his capability even before coming into government, he spoke about his experience in government in the last seven years, marshalling the various challenges that we have and he also mentioned the various things that need to be done. Number one, to continue with the various things that are being done now and even to make it better. I think he had the capacity and experience and readiness for the job. I want to say that he is probably the number one that we have within the APC today.”
Isiaka, who is equally eyeing the Ogun West Senatorial seat in the National Assembly, said Osinbajo’s declaration was not in any way an act of betrayal to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s intention to run for the same position.
He said: “I don’t see his declaration as a betrayal to Tinubu. I think it is a clarion call that he has heeded. If there are issues that need to be sorted out, I think there are better ways of sorting that out aside from the fate and the future of 200 million Nigerians.”
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The members of the OSM comprising mostly youths marched from the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium through Ahmadu Bello Way and stopped at the NUJ Press Center where they addressed journalists.
The OSM members were seen singing and dancing expressing their happiness over the development, expressing confidence that the Vice President will win the APC presidential ticket.
National Publicity Secretary of the OSM, Ibrahim Khalid Angale, while addressing journalists said that “today is a very happy day for us, members of the OSM. We have been calling on him to declare interest in vying for the presidency, we are happy he finally agreed.”
Angale stressed that, with the declaration, every issue about the matter has now been laid to rest, expressing confidence that Osinbajo will no doubt win the presidential nomination of the APC.
He said: “Now that Vice President Osinbajo has officially declared interest to contest the APC presidential ticket, all the support groups will immediately start mobilization of delegates for the national presidential primaries of the party.”
Ibrahim Khalid Angale added that “as you can see, we came out today to celebrate the declaration of interest to run, that is the first step. We will now go on to the next stage which is to purchase the necessary forms.”
According to him, the way with which the group was able “to convince him to declare is the same way we will go about to mobilise funds to be able to purchase the nomination forms for him as soon as possible.”
He then expressed confidence that a Yemi Osinbajo presidency for Nigeria will be the best thing to have happened to the country, stressing that “he will build on the good legacy of the present administration led by President Muhammadu Buhari.”
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