Get Guardian on GoogleThe All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State, on Thursday warned promoters of a political group, Boye Nation, to either support all its candidates or stay away from its campaign activities over what it described as an attempt to promote candidates of different political parties simultaneously.
The party’s warning followed the circulation of a video on social media showing campaign-branded vehicles bearing photographs of President Bola Tinubu, the APC presidential candidate, alongside those of the Allied Peoples’ Movement (APM) governorship candidate in Oyo State.
The vehicles also reportedly displayed the symbols of Boye Nation and the logos of both the APC and APM.
In a statement issued and made available to journalists in Ibadan, the Oyo APC Publicity Secretary, Olawale Sadare, said the party would not tolerate what he described as an attempt to create confusion within its ranks.
Sadare said the APC remained willing to reconcile with aggrieved members and accommodate different interests, noting that broad-based support was important to electoral success.
He, however, cautioned that the party’s openness to reconciliation should not be mistaken for weakness.
The APC spokesman alleged that some individuals behind Boye Nation’s activities in Ibadan were planning to create confusion by campaigning for Tinubu while supporting candidates of other political parties.
He said the party had received reports that some individuals who recently left the APC were attempting to mobilise support for the president despite their new political affiliations.
While urging them to reconsider their decision and return to the APC, Sadare warned against branding campaign vehicles and other materials with the logos of multiple political parties.
He said anyone interested in supporting an APC candidate must also work for the party’s other standard-bearers.
“To this end, we are saying it emphatically that it is an obligation for anyone who is interested in any of our party candidates to embrace all other APC’s standard bearers,” he said.
“If you are supporting our presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, you must be intentional by working for the governorship, senatorial, House of Representatives and House of Assembly candidates of the APC at the same time, as doing otherwise would be unacceptable to us,” the statement added.
