The South West Agenda for Asiwaju 2023 (SWAGA) has said people across political divides would be welcomed into the group to ensure victory for the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in next year’s presidential election.
The APC support group, which declared the task as the South-West and Nigeria project, also chided the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, over his comment on the choice of Kashim Shettima as the APC vice presidential candidate, saying he has no moral justification to condemn the pick.
The SWAGA national chairman, Senator Adedayo Adeyeye spoke in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital on Friday at an event held to receive hundreds of members of opposition parties in the State into SWAGA.
Adeyeye explained that the group would do everything possible to deliver majority of votes in Ekiti for the APC presidential candidate, “who is ready to offer hopes to the people and improve our livelihood.”
At the event, members of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Accord Party, PDP, National Rescue Movement (NRM) and the chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) in Ekiti State, Ifedayo Iyaniwura, signaled their readiness to work for the victory of Tinubu during the February 2023 presidential poll.
He added that the APC’s choice of Shettima was the masterstroke that has put the opposition party in panicking mode ahead of the next year’s elections.
The former Senate spokesman, who allayed the fears of the Christian faithful on the APC Muslim-Muslim ticket, said it was a formula for the party to win the all-important election, adding that Tinubu is a liberal person who will not discriminate against other religions in the country.
He said, “We want everybody to come on board because this is not about a particular party. We have representatives of various political parties in this gathering wanting to work for the victory of Tinubu next year. Let me tell you that if we call these people today as APC members, they won’t have been here but we say it is South-West Agenda for our principal, and that is the reason you can see the large turnout of people across party lines. That is why we see SWAGA as the vehicle to deliver most of the votes in the South-West.
“Politics is a game of number and PDP can’t challenge us from the moral ground because their candidate, Atiku Abubakar, believed in that ticket in 1993 as evidence has surfaced and don’t forget some of us were participants then,” Adeyeye said.
In his remarks, the state IPAC chairman, Iyaniwura, and the deputy govenorship candidate of the SDP in the June 18 governorship election in Ekiti State, Ladi Owolabi, said they were committed to Tinubu’s presidential ambition regardless of their present political affiliations.
He said, “I believe in the capacity of former governor of Lagos State and that is the reason I am here to support his ambition in becoming the President of this country. I believe in SWAGA and I will galvanise support for Tinubu to win next year.”
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