Incumbency, bandwagon effect won’t help Makinde, Abiodun, Sanwo-Olu in 2023, says NNPP chieftain, Olopoeyan

• Oyo APC asks Makinde to resign
• Quit guber race, gov’s media team tells Folarin, others
• Makinde presents the scorecard in the Ibadan zone

Leader of the South-West Zone of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Alhaji Bisi Olopoeyan, yesterday, said it would amount to political misfortune and miscalculation for any of the South-West governors seeking a second term in the 2023 governorship polls to bank on possible ‘bandwagon effect’ from the presidential election.

Olopoeyan, in a telephone chat with The Guardian, also said that the incumbency factor would not facilitate victory for Governors Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos) and Dapo Abiodun (Ogun) in the governorship contest.

In a related vein, the Oyo State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC), yesterday, asked Makinde to resign from office over the accusation that the Oyo State government had violated its procurement law in the award of a contract worth N998 million for the production of the exercise books meant for use in public schools in favour of companies linked to him and his cronies.

However, Makinde faulted the reports as he denied any wrongdoing and also threatened to resign from office if found culpable after the investigation.

In a statement yesterday, the spokesman of Oyo APC, Wale Shadare, said the state government had after debunking the allegation, awarded another contract worth N694 million to cronies with a view to producing and supplying another batch of exercise books.
MEANWHILE, Makinde Campaign Media Team has advised candidates of opposition parties in Oyo State not to engage in a wasteful gubernatorial venture that will lead to nowhere, saying that their attempt to unseat the governor is an exercise that is doomed to be unsuccessful.

Chairman of the media team, Dotun Oyelade, stated this, at the weekend, in a statement in Ibadan, urging the governorship candidates of opposition parties to quit the race and save their resources.

He said that Senator Teslim Folarin and Chief Bayo Adelabu, as well as others, do not stand any chance of defeating Makinde because of his unprecedented achievements in security, health, education and economic expansion.

RELATEDLY, Makinde has, at the weekend, reeled out his administration’s scorecard on projects executed within the Ibadan metropolis, saying that he has contributed immensely to the growth of Ibadanland and the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII).

The governor, who made the declaration during an event hosted by Ibadan Social-Cultural Clubs, where he was conferred with the title of Aare Jagunmolu of Ibadanland, said that he always takes the interest and peace of Ibadanland into consideration before taking decisions in government.

Makinde said that before he assumed office as governor, he had donated up to N120 million to CCII from his personal purse also said that in the last three and a half years, he had delivered projects to reposition the city of Ibadan and the entire state.

He said: “In terms of governance, there are many significant initiatives that this administration has undertaken to improve Oyo State and Ibadan in particular, and the successes in those projects are already recorded in the book that has been made available to everyone here.