Senator Olufemi Lanlehin, the 2019 gubernatorial candidate of African Democratic Congress in Oyo State on Saturday has admonished a group of 10 opposition parties in Ondo State to resist the temptation of working with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the coming election.
This was contained in a statement released by the former senator in Ibadan.
Lanlehin said the group would regret their action in the end because the PDP and its candidate, Eyitayo Jegede, would not honour their agreements.
The opposition parties are Accord, ADC, Labour Party (LP), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), National Resistance Movement (NRM), All Peoples Party (APP), African Action Congress (AAC), and Social Democratic Party (SDP). They had on Thursday announced a plan to adopt one of the APC, PDP and ZLP as a consensus candidate within 72 hours.
Lanlehin advised the opposition parties to support Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who he said he had known for decades as a man who honours agreements and is not deceitful.
Recall that Senator Olufemi Lanlehin was among the leading candidates who withdrew by reason of a coalition with Governor Seyi Makinde of the PDP.
The coalition worked for Makinde’s victory in the election but they have since fallen apart with Lanlehin, accusing the governor of failure to honour pre-election agreements.
Lanlehin said: “I urge the opposition parties in Ondo State not to give their support to PDP’s candidate in next Saturday’s election. Be guided by our experience in Oyo State where we supported the PDP’s candidate to win, only for him to dishonour our agreement.
“A gentleman’s word should be his bond, goes a saying. But it seems to me that it is in the DNA of PDP to be duplicitous and honour is alien to the party and its candidates.
“In Oyo State in 2019, we supported the PDP’s candidate to win and pre-election agreement was reached to that effect. Right from when he was governor-elect, he started showing signs that he would discard the agreement and eventually did on assumption of office without his conscience pricking him.
“The PDP man who did not honour agreement is the chairman of the PDP candidate’s campaign council in Ondo, and they are very close. What will then be the difference between six and half a dozen?
“Let the Ondo opposition leaders give their honour to who deserves it in the person of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“As a senior lawyer of many years standing, he has been very frank and above board in his social contract with the people of Ondo State in terms of what he can do and what he will not be able to do. Such a man deserves another term.
“APC is at the centre and there are many gains for the Sunshine State if APC continues to govern it. These gains are in addition to the massive infrastructural development of the state which began in almost four years now and will surely continue under Akeredolu.”
He also charged the people of the state to eschew violence as they file out to vote on Saturday, stressing that violence is an ill-wind that blows no one any good.