Makinde deceived South-West PDP till last minute –Secretary

The South-West Zone General Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ramon Owokoniran, has said members of the party in the zone are aggrieved that the Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, campaigned for opposition presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, during the February 25, 2023 presidential election.

Owokoniran said both the party member and non-party members in the zone were still sad that Makinde campaigned for the APC candidate at the detriment of their party’s presidential flagbearer, Atiku Abubakar, noting that what transpired at the presidential election in the state should not be used to determine the Makinde’s re-election on March 18.

Speaking with our correspondent, he said the governor made the party believe that he was not against Abubakar until the last minute.

He said, “The South-West PDP is not happy with the development that Makinde campaigned for another presidential candidate at the detriment of our candidate. All the while, the governor made us believe that he wasn’t against the candidate.

“So, what eventually played out is that people are not happy and I’m not just talking about the party members but non-party members too; even the anger is more experienced by people outside the party who believed that the decision shouldn’t have taken him that far.

“What transpired in the last election will definitely impact the governorship and state House of Assembly elections but I don’t think it should be enough for us not to deliver the states.”

Makinde belongs to the faction of PDP known as the G-5 governors, which includes Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), and Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, which clamoured that the presidential ticket of the party should be zoned to the southern part of the country.

But Makinde had claimed that he only supported the course for fairness, justice and equity, adding that the people of the state decided to vote for a presidential candidate from the southern part of the country.