The national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has once again expressed the party’s readiness to win all the states in the Southwest geopolitical zone.
Spark News Daily reports that Dr. Ganduje, during a visit to Akure on Sunday after INEC had declared Gov Aiyedatiwa the winner of the governorship election in Ondo State, expressed confidence that APC would also win Oyo and Osun states in the future elections.
However, in a swift reaction, the Osun State chapter of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, (NNPP) accused Dr. Ganduje of inciting political chaos in the Southwest zone with his comments.
Dr. Ganduje spoke of the party’s landslide victory in Ondo State, while the victorious Gov Aiyedatiwa paid him a courtesy visit after receiving his Certificate of Return from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said the Southwest geopolitical zone is the zone of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and it’s naturally expected that APC should have homogeneity in terms of political advantage.
According to him, through democratic means, the party will take over the entire Southwest, stating that the states governed by the APC will provide the dividend of democracy so as to continuously maintain their winning ways and by so doing extend it to the entire zone.
“The Southwest geopolitical zone is the zone of our president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Naturally, you expect that we should have homogeneity in terms of political leading.
“Therefore, through democratic means we will do all that’s possible to ensure that we have homogeneity in that Southwest geopolitical zone by winning the next two states, Osun and Oyo”.
He charged the governor and his deputy to deliver on the dividends of democracy.
Dr. Ganduje stressed that being the deputy governor, and governor for 10 months and now governor for the next four years, gov Aiyedatiwa must have known all the 18 local governments and their characteristics in terms of democracy and landscape.
He noted that all these variables must be put together by the governor and his deputy in order to draw out what type of project and programme to be executed that will improve the quality of lives of the people.
Earlier, Gov Aiyedatiwa who is basking in the euphoria of his victory, commended the party and the people of Ondo for the historic win.
According to him, the November 16th governorship election was one where the people of the state spoke clearly and loudly.
He however emphasized that the choice of vote was about the party and not him as a person, noting that he was only a representative of the party.
“The victory was not because I was the one running, I believe there were many factors that played out and made the people to vote overwhelmingly for me. All of these wouldn’t have happened without the political platform, the APC.
“I want to once again thank the leadership of the party for providing this platform for me and my deputy to run as governor and deputy in the just concluded election”, he added.
The governor said the kind of massive votes he received from people has placed a burden on him to do more than what he has been doing in the last ten months.
“This will make our party proud so that after we might have served the number of years the constitution allows us for, APC will take over from us again. We’ll ensure that the name of the party remains intact by the good governance we will provide for the people”.
