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By Ayobami Ife, Abeokuta
Ogun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday clarified that its Monday endorsement is for the 2027 re-election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and not for governor Dapo Abiodun or the All Progressives Congress (APC) House of Representatives candidate in the August 16 Remo Federal Constituency bye – election.
Ogun PDP which condemned the attempt by persons suspected to be the agents of governor Abiodun to distort the facts about the sincere move by the party to throw its weight behind Tinubu ahead of 2027, said the pledged support for Tinubu should not be interpreted to mean an open endorsement of the Ogun APC candidate for the August 16 bye-election.
The Publicity Secretary of the party, Arc. kayode Adebayo, who made clarification to newsmen in Abeokuta, the state capital, accused the APC of misleading the public on social media, stressing that the coming bye – election is unconnected to the re-election bid of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Adebayo restated that the PDP candidate for the bye – election remains Asiwaju Bolarinwa Oluwole, stressing that no amount of twist, falsehood and deceit deployed against the party and Oluwole allegedly by the governor, APC or his agents would stop the Remo electorate from exercising their free choice on August 16.
He said, “In order to set the records straight and insulate innocent members of the public from the APC’s litany of misinformation and deliberate twists of facts, we make bold to remind them, again, that the electoral victory recorded by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2023 was the imperative of power shift to the South. Also, it is fundamentally germane to clarify that our endorsement of President Tinubu would not affect our party’s candidates for the 2027 National Assembly elections and other State elections.
“We were shocked that our comments about the poor contribution of Governor Dapo Abiodun to the landslide victory recorded by the President in Ogun State couldn’t catch the attention of the APC leadership to show remorse over. We mentioned that the INEC records have it that Governor DAPO ABIODUN lost his polling unit 002 (Ita Osanyin where APC polled 112 votes against 119 votes scored by the PDP) in the 2023 election as well as his ward IPERU III (where APC got a total of 731 votes against 794 votes scored by the PDP). Rather than having the supporters of the Governor bury their heads in shame, they were busy twisting the story of what transpired at our campaign flag-off yesterday.
“The noise of wanting to use the instrumentality of the Office of the President to sway victory in favour of the APC in the coming bye election is a total mirage that the APC in Ogun State should erase from their minds. The coming bye election is not in any way connected to the reelection bid of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“We are not unaware of the reasons why the APC attempted to twist the core of the matter. It is a tactical way, for the APC, of accepting the reality of another round of electoral defeat in the bye election. Hence, it is difficult for them to separate the president, as an individual from the God forsaken APC, as a party. It is even more disturbing that APC could not talk about the call by PDP to reject APC in the coming bye election. The APC should be reminded that the called rejection of APC on August 16 Bye-Election is to serve as a punishment for bad governance and Mr. Abiodun’s manifest cluelessness.
“Like we have always held, Mr Dapo Abiodun should dwell less on the PDP becoming imaginarily an empty shell. He should rather dwell more on disbanning all the machinery of terror he is planning as usual to unleash against the PDP, innocent electorates and the entire process pre, during and post the August 16 bye election.
“Even if anyone endorsed anybody, that should never be a stumbling block for free, fair and credible elections. For the bye election and beyond, the PDP is particular about credible polls. There is no way the APC can stand a chance of winning any electoral contest in Ogun State again, especially following the abysmally poor management of the State and its fortune under the irresponsible watch of Mr Abiodun.
“Therefore, Mr Abiodun and his gang of incompetent friends should disembark from the voyage of deliberate self deceit. APC stands no electoral chance in Remoland and the people are patiently waiting to show him, again, that the PDP is theirs. We, again, say that Asiwaju Bolarinwa Oluwole remains our candidate for the August 16th bye election and PDP is our party. There is no any amount of twist, falsehood and deceit deployed against us by Mr Abiodun, his APC or his agents that would stop the people from exercising their free choice come August 16th.”
