By Kolawole Ojebisi
The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has taken offence at what it called inappropriate úse of words by the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Alhaji Umar Ganduje about the political reality and battle for control in the South West geopolitical zone.
Recall that during a stakeholders’s meeting in Ondo on Sunday Ganduje had said the APC would capture the entire South West geopolitical zone in the next election season.
The former Kano governor noted that the Ondo State governorship election slated for November 16 was a done deal.
Though the APC chairman maintained that the strategy his party, the APC would deploy would be kept under wraps, the PDP has taken umbrage at what it described as a reckless utterances.
Addressing journalists at the PDP headquarters on Monday, National Publicity Secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba, said the former governor of Kano might be declared persona non grata in the the SouthWest.
He also asked the International Community to see the statement as a threat, saying “these are the statements that we have seen over the months, talking about totalitarianism and one party state in this country.”
He said: “So what he’s saying is that he’s going to take the South West State and its people as prisoners of war. So for us, it is troubling.
“But this is actually a warning. The people of South West have a very rich history, a people that are very strong willed, that are politically educated and they know what they want. And for anybody who is a student of history, will recognize clearly that the South West has always been a bastion for democratic right.
“For Ganduje to come into Ondo State and say those reckless things, call for the attention of Nigerians and indeed international community that he is a threat to democracy. And so to Ganduje, he should be careful about South West, because he could be declared as a ‘personal non grata’ in the south west for these recklessness.
“The APC should know, and I’m sure some of the leaders recognize that and they should stay away from Ondo State. The election of November 16 in Ondo State is a different ball game entirely. The people of Ondo state are ready, they are set to vote the PDP and any attempt, having regards to the history of Ondo people, you can’t cow them, you cannot suppress them from whatever they believe in. The APC should watch it, and they should know that, we do not take threats and the idea of capture. We’ve never been captured, we are not prisoners.”
Governor’s elected on the platform of the APC call the shots in four of the six states constituting the Southwest region of the country.
Osun and Oyo, the remaining two states in the region, are being governed by governors elected on the platform of the PDP.
