Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke and the chairman of New Nigeria Peoples Party’s (NNPP) in the state, Dr. Tosin Odeyemi, have cautioned the All Progressives Congress (APC) national chairman, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, against turning South West to a war zone.
The warning came against the backdrop of Ganduje’s claim that the APC is set to take over Osun and Oyo state governments. He stated this while expressing delight over the victory of Governor Lucky Ayedatiwa at the just concluded Ondo State governorship election.
In a statement, chief press secretary to Governor Adeleke, Mallam Olawale Rasheed, accused Ganduje of having a swollen ego with an agenda to destabilise the South West zone and create a crisis for Mr President at the home front.
He noted that the APC national chairman is clearly unhappy with the peace and united front behind Tinubu from the Southwest zone and has now launched vicious attacks to ignite regional political battles to weaken the president ahead of 2027.
He said: “As a well read politician, one would have expected Dr Ganduje to know that electoral contests depend mostly on local indexes and factors and that what obtains in Edo and Ondo are surely different from political facts on ground in Osun state.”
He said Osun state is the cradle of Yoruba people where political freedom is cherished and where resistance to electoral fraud is a strong tradition, describing Dr Ganduje as “a threat to democracy and an insider enemy of President Tinubu.”
He added, “If Dr Ganduje truly loves Mr. President, why is he pushing to destabilize the president’s home zone through open threats to violate electoral law and deny the electorate their rights to vote and be voted for? By threatening to hijack opposition states, the APC leader is undermining the general consensus among Yoruba people, which accept Mr. President as their own irrespective of political differences.
“If however the statement of the APC leader is borne out of ignorance, he is invited to study Osun politics to get better informed of the dynamics of this state’s politics and to appreciate that what works in Edo and Ondo cannot play out here for several reasons” the spokesperson noted.
On his part, Odeyemi, in a statement in Osogbo on Monday, said such a statement was least expected from an elder statesman who was aware of the hardship being faced by Nigerians under the leadership of his party.
He noted that, in a free and fair contest, nobody would have voted for APC in Ondo state but because the party have intentionally impoverished the masses, vote buying became an order of the day.
He queried why it was difficult for Ganduje to capture his own state, Kano, during their last gubernatorial election if truly he felt Nigerians are with his party.
