The ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Oyo State chapter, has told the deputy governor, Engr. Rauf Aderemi Olaniyan to resign immediately since he has willfully abandoned the political party and the votes that produced him as such on the party’s joint ticket.
The ruling party warned against any attempt by Olaniyan and his new party to steal Oyo people’s mandate through the backdoor after the last ruling party was utterly rejected at the 2019 governorship poll.
This statement follows the deputy governor’s dramatic defection from the ruling PDP to one of the opposition parties in the state, the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Sunday.
The state Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Akeem Olatunji, in a press release on Monday morning, June 6, noted that the PDP leadership in the state, south west region, and national levels all intervened at different intervals to resolve whatever the situation fueling the suspected defection plan was to no avail.
Disappointed by comments credited to the deputy governor after officially announcing his defection from the PDP to the APC that even though he has left PDP, he still remains the deputy governor, the ruling party cautioned against what it called selfish motivation noting that such move amount to daylight robbery of the people’s mandate.
The party said Olaniyan should not pretend not to know what is right next to do after leaving the political platform that sponsored him and Makinde on the joint ticket if truly he has any atom of the Yoruba ‘omoluabi’ toga he always ascribed to himself.
“Oyo people did not vote for a PDP/APC joint ticket, they voted entirely for a PDP mandate”, the ruling party declared, adding that while section 40 of the constitution of Nigeria guarantees freedom of association of any person, the deputy governor ought to be enlightened by the same Constitution when it stipulated that the ticket upon which he (Olaniyan) contested the 2019 governorship election alongside Governor Makinde as a deputy was not an independent candidate ticket.
“It is only when you contest election as an independent candidate and win and then decides to move to any political party of your choice that you become the owner of the votes cast by the electorates, unfortunately for Olaniyan who wants to eat his cake and still have it.
The Oyo PDP, which is the rightful owner of the mandate will retrieve it back in no distant time using every available legal means if Olaniyan fails to humbly resign as a gentleman with his new move.
“Our position is simple and very clear on this matter and as a matter of legal implication, the votes in any election in Nigeria are to political parties, and not candidates,”. And it is on this note that the PDP as the ruling party in the state is advising the Deputy Governor, Rauf Olaniyan, not to be carried away by the lies and deceits told him by a political neophyte such as ‘Mr jagba’ and be bamboozled into self delusion of thinking he can be used a tool to steal Oyo people’s mandate through the backdoor.
“Failure to follow this advise and adhere strictly to it from the PDP which is the legitimate owner of every single vote casted by the electorates in the 2019 governorship election, the PDP shall not hesitate to immediately deploy every constitutional means to prevent this daylight robbery.
“We’re determined and resolved to retrieve the party’s mandate being withheld illegally and unlawfully by the deputy Governor, Engr Rauf Olaniyan because it belongs to the people of Oyo state who have handled same to the PDP.” Oyo PDP declared.
According to the ruling party’s statement, the defection of Olaniyan was not surprising because his frolicking and hobnobbing with the APC over time has made his eventual move an open secret which was widely reported in the news by the media.
It was only shameful and disappointing that Olaniyan had repeatedly looked straight into the live camera and told unbridled lies multiple times by openly denying the media reports which have proved to be true after all.
The ruling PDP in Oyo in its statement recalled how the incumbent Anambra state Governor, Professor Charles Soludo, went ahead to record a landslide victory at the poll despite the then Deputy Governor, some APGA members of the National Assembly and other appointees of the Obiano led APGA government defecting to APC which attest to the fact that no amount of blackmail, propaganda and hang-up can change people’s determination to support continuity of good governance.
According to Oyo PDP, Ondo and Kogi state deputy governors made same moves prior to elections in their respective states but the state governors went to record landslide victories at the guber polls, therefore, Teslim Folarin and his likes in the Oyo APC should stop bloating in self delusion following Olaniyan’s action stressing that Seyi Makinde who has earned the trust of the Oyo masses has proved the APC wrong with the unprecedented success and consistency with the achievements recorded in three years.
The party added that there is no vacancy in the Agodi Government House because the 2023 election is already a forgone issue as the people of Oyo state who are well satisfied with the people oriented policies of Makinde led PDP administration are ever ready to make a repeat statement with their votes more than 2019.
The party however, said it will not dignify Senator Teslim Folarin who it described as a political orphan in the state with a response to his hasty remarks following Olaniyan’s defection to his faction of the APC stressing that Folarin was merely trying to cash in on a seemingly trending topical issue in the state in order to gain political relevance and should focus more on his desolated party than further exposing his overbearing desperation to become governor by all means.
