Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu has said the All Progressives Congress, Oyo State chapter is determined to work as one united political family to stave off defeat in 2027.
Adelabu, who incidentally was the party governorship candidate in 2019 general elections made the pledge on Wednesday in Abuja at a meeting between stakeholders in the party from Oyo State and the party national leadership.
Nigerian Tribune checks revealed that the incumbent Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde defeated Adebayo Adelabu and Senator Teslim Folarin, APC governorship candidates in 2019 and 2023, respectively.
But the Minister of Power said APC chieftains in the southwest state were determined to bury their differences to regain lost grounds in Oyo State.
He said: “We are happy that for the first time, after the last elections, Oyo APC can now speak with one voice.
“There is no faction in Oyo State APC again and we are more determined than ever before to take over the governance in Oyo State.
“I believe we lost the last two elections, not to non-popularity of the party in the states or due to lack of effort on our part. “But it is division. A house that is divided against itself will surely fail. Oyo State is an APC State. We all know that.
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“In 2019, when I was the governorship candidate of the party, we had divisions. We could not achieve effective reconciliation before the election. We had two senators and about 10 House of representatives members. Two out of three senators and 10 out of fourteen House of Representatives members. So you know that Oyo State APC is a grassroots party and it is a party of the masses.
“There is not other thing to prove. We always have the majority at the National Assembly. However, because of the division that we had at the state election level, we lost the governorship and the House of Assembly elections in 2019.
“The same thing happened in 2023 when we had three out of three, a 100 per cent score, in the senatorial elections. “What more do you have to prove that the state belongs to APC? We had nine out of 14 House of Representatives members. That is over 70 percent. It is also excellent. So what more do you have to prove?
“The same thing happened. We had divisions and lack of reconciliations. Now that we have all realized that no faction and division can win us elections.”
National Chairman of the party, Umar Ganduje, said President Bola Tinubu was concerned about winning all the Southwest states at the next general elections.
He said everything would be done to achieve genuine reconciliation in all states chapters in the region.
“Oyo State is part of our blueprint which we call political party homogeneity. We have been looking for unity and uniformity in Oyo State. Now we are seeing elements of unity and uniformity.
“We are concerned about the unity of Oyo State and the unity of Nigeria and the homogeneity of the South West because our 2027 is a task that must be done.
“We will organise mega stakeholder meetings in Ibadan that will involve all the members of the party to the point that the opposition will be intimidated.
“We made it clear when we came on board that it will not be business as usual. We want the party to be active in the State throughout the year. We want your party offices from the ward, to the Local Government levels to be physically habitable and functionally operational by having constant meetings.
“That is how you can be connected and coherently alive and more importantly intimidate the opponents.”
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