By Jude Opara, Abuja

A group under the aegis of Friends of Governor of Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun state led by Senator Ajibola Bashiru have boasted that the governor is the candidate to beat in the forthcoming governorship election.

Bashiru and his team made the declaration on yesterday at the National Secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) when they picked the nomination form for the governor in support of hi ambition to contest for re-election.

He said the State of Osun is blessed with a governor whose interest is in giving his people a quality dividends of governance adding that the state has never been better in so many areas including welfare, health, education and infrastructure.

He also boasted that the party has the structure to emerge victorious at the election.
“We have the structures in all the nine federal constituencies. We also have ward executives, local executives and unit executives. So, it’s about structures that win elections and not personality.

So we believe that the existing structures of our party is such that the party that is really in existence today is the APC and I will give you statistics.  Beyond the 2018 election, the first election and the only election that has been conducted under the leadership of Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola is the 2019 general elections and I challenge you to go to INEC website to download the results.

 
“There are nine federal constituencies in the State of Osun. Our party APC had six out of that nine seats and of course if you do the percentage that is about 65% that’s B plus. Then in the Senatorial election in the three Senatorial districts, our party got two out of the three Senatorial districts I think that’s also about 70% and of course in the house of assembly,  of the 26 seats we have in Osun, our party had 23 out of the 26 and all of them are still members of our political party. 

“So when you have a political party that has in its fold two senators,  six house of Representatives members and 23 elected State legislators I don’t think it is beyond any doubt to say the party to beat in the State of Osun is the APC and the leadership of the party has provided structure to ensure that we deliver massively.

And we also know that the presidential election in  2019, Osun is one of the States that delivered for our leader president Muhammadu Buhari. So no doubt, the State of our party is strong, vibrant, cohesive and articulate to deliver for the party in the 2022 election.”
He reiterated that the friends of the governor are not persuading him to contest because he has declared his interest publicly.

“I don’t think the inference to draw is the fact that we have collected form. The inference is not necessarily the logical implication of the fact that we have picked the form. The governor at the maiden meeting of the traditional council in the Oba traditional council that was held last week openly and publicly declared his interest to contest.”

Bashiru also dismissed the claims that the state chapter of the APC is in disarray,.
“There’s nothing like mass defection, in fact if there’s any movement, it is movement towards APC. From what is on ground today, objectively, and you can go and conduct vox pop in the streets of Osun, the party to beat is APC and the aspirant that will get the mandate of APC is Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, no doubt about it.”

He also argued that being a member of the APC Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) should not be an issue, even as he said that Oyetola can also choose to recuse himself if the need be.