The senator representing Oyo Central, Teslim Folarin, has joined the race for the governorship ticket of the party in the state, on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
While declaring his gubernatorial ambition, Senator Folarin, in his “Rescue Mission” speech said he is on the mission to sign a pact with the people of the state in a bid to restore the state to its former status.
Folarin stated: “The multitude of your presence at this declaration event can only be a pointer to your vote of no confidence in a political party and an administration that have jointly, severally and progressively taken our state backwards at the whims of the paddlers of our state’s boat.”
He noted that Oyo State people have suffered, for about three years, from a government where institutional rigidity, pervasive insecurity, policy summersaults, monumental debt and inoperable economic ideas reign supreme, asserting that as Nigerian national challenges persist, the state is further embroiled in pervasive deprivations worsened by acute lack of vision to mitigate the effect of the crisis.
The senator lamented that despite being blessed by providence with surplus human and capital resources, the people of the state are made to live their lives and feed themselves and their families under severe hardship and excruciating frustrations, occasioned by receding opportunities.
He said: “With my robust administrative experience, unimpeded courage and strength of conviction, I am poised to invest in policies that will drive economic development, provide a sea of opportunities for the teeming populace, improve healthcare, agriculture, education and infrastructure so that our state can be an investment hub and preferred destination in Nigeria. All these will be clothed in human face by an administration that is people-driven.
“Our government shall be founded on a mission that will prioritise productive agricultural reform, affordable and qualitative education for all school-age children in Oyo State; efficient healthcare delivery for all irrespective of age, gender and status; massive leaning on industrialisation that is strongly supported by sprawling agricultural value chain; urban renewal and rural infrastructural development; secured Oyo State where every lawful citizen shall have no reason to fret and stimulating local economy through employment generation that is anchored on entrepreneurship and innovation,” Folarin assured.
In the same vein, the only PDP serving senator in the state, Senator Kola Balogun (Oyo South), hundreds of his supporters and some members of the Labour Party in Oyo State, have, on Tuesday, defected to the APC.
With the defection of Balogun from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Oyo APC now has all the three senatorial seats in the state.
Kola Balogun, the younger brother of the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Lekan Balogun, won the senatorial seat on the platform of the PDP, after defeating late former Governor Abiola Ajimobi but recently decided to leave the Oyo State ruling party after he was denied the ticket by Governor Seyi Makinde, ahead of the party primaries.
The latest defection is in continuation of the efforts of the Isaac Omodewu-led party executive to woo members of the PDP, among other parties, to the APC.
Top PDP chieftains including Muraina Ajibola (Ibarapa Central/Ibarapa North Federal Constituency) had about two weeks ago led thousands of other leaders of the ruling party to the APC.
Speaking at the event, Balogun berated Governor Makinde for the worsening situation of things in the state, citing what he described as the worsening security situation and the rising cases of hooliganism and thuggery as one of the numerous reasons the APC must retake the state from Makinde.
The lawmaker was received at the Party Secretariat by the Party Chairman, Hon. Isaac Omodewu, Hon Mojeed Olaoya, Senator Teslim Folarin, Senator Buhari Abdulfatai, Hon Segun Odebunmi, Asimiyu Alarape, Hon Yemi Aderibigbe, former Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu and Sen Braimoh Yusuff.
In his speech, earlier, the Oyo state APC Chairman, Issac Omodewu, said he was elated that the three serving senators in the state are now in APC, as 11 out of the 14 Federal Constituency lawmakers are also in the fold, urging the remaining three to join the APC family without further delay.
Omodewu charged the people of the state, particularly members of the party, to disregard any form of hearsay because there is no misunderstanding whatsoever in the party, saying although the party had issues in time past, everything had been resolved.