By Kolawole Ojebisi
The All Progressives Congress(APC)has told Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State that elections are not won by fiat or pronouncements but rather through the decisions of the electorate at the poll.
The party stressed that it’s not Makinde’s antics or political grandstanding that would determine his successor or the outcome of the election in the neighboring Osun State but the people.
The Deputy National Secretary of the APC, Nze Duru said this during an interview with Sunday PUNCH.
Makinde had on Wednesday declared support for Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke for the 2026 governorship election, boasting that the Peoples Democratic Party would teach the APC political lessons in both states.
Makinde made his statement as a response to the APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje’s claim in the wake of the successive victories recorded by his party in both Edo and Ondo govership elections.
Ganduje had said the APC was on a mission to win the entire Southwest region for the President Tinubu stressing that winning elections in the remaining two states in the region would be a walk in the park for the ruling party.
Makinde described Ganduje’s statement as inaccurate.
Reacting to Makinde’s statement, Dudu said the Oyo State governor was merely playing politics by making such conjectures.
The scribe stood by Ganduje’s remarks, adding that it was fair the APC sounded a note for warning on their mission ahead of the Osun, Anambra and Oyo states.
He said, “It is good we have made our view known that the APC is prepared and working very hard within the confines of the law. We are speaking to the people to win them over to vote for APC in the next election.
“There is also nothing wrong for Makinde to make the statement he did. It means that he now understands the only way for him to retain his office is to do the things that the people of Oyo would consider as meeting their aspirations. It is politics.
“At the end of the day, it is the people in each of the three respective states that we have discussed that will decide in the course of next year who their governors will be, not Makinde. So, the APC is working very hard to ensure we bring them within the progressive community and show them what it means to be a state under the ambit of the APC.”
