PDP will Oust Oyetola in 2022, Says Osun Party Chairman

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

The Chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State, Hon. Sunday Bisi, has stated that the successful conclusion of the party’s state and national congresses would herald the end of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and Governor Gboyega Oyetola’s tenure in the state.

Bisi boasted that there was no doubt about the fact that the people of the state have seen the PDP as a better alternative because of what he described as “poor performance of the ruling APC in the past 10 years.”

He noted that for the past three years there were no tangible projects that could be pointed out by the present administration, describing the three years of Governor Oyetola as “three years of wasteful resources.”

The PDP Chairman made these known while fielding questions from THISDAY correspondent in his office in Osogbo, the capital of Osun State.
“We had a successful convention in Abuja and all of us were together. Therefore, there is no rift again within the party in the state and we are now one big united family in PDP in Osun and in Nigeria. There is no rift in our party now, all those things have been settled and they are gone.”

He said that “all issues concerning Osun PDP have been settled by the grace of God and decisions taken at the national convention. The congresses held in Osun, which were earlier passed by the National Working Committee, were also ratified at the national convention, the highest decision making level of the party.
“I can tell you for free that Osun PDP is now one big family. All components of the party from bottom to top are all working together as we speak. All members of national assembly under the banners of our party are also working together with me to move the party forward.”

According to him, “we are going to defeat APC in the coming gubernatorial election in the state. We are going to rescue the people of Osun State. I want to urge the people of Osun to please continue to endure because it remains just a year.
“Three years of wasteful resources, even the projects they inherited from Aregbesola, they have never done anything on it. The Ilesa Garage, Dele Yessir Road, they have been on that road for the past 10 years.

“Oyetola was there as one of those who bastardised Osun State in all the years of APC misrule. He was there when pensioners and workers were owed for 33 months without any sign of paying the people concerned. So he has no basis to exonerate himself from whatever destruction his party perpetrated against the state.
“The bridge at Olaiya is another disaster being foisted on Osun by Oyetola and the APC administration contrary to what was promoted in the media with all sorts of graphics. Osun State cannot afford to continue with such a government.

“The present bridge they are constructing is just a one way bridge. We have never seen that kind of bridge in our lives. It had never happened in any state. We had traveled far and wide I mean in this country, I have gone to so many places. I have never seen this kind of bridge.”

Speaking on the recent endorsements by various groups, the Osun PDP Chairman said: “It’s because there is nothing concrete to show as achievements that was why Governor Gboyega Oyetola is begging people to come and endorse him.
“For good three years Oyetola doesn’t have anything that he could show as his achievements nothing to showcase for the person who has been in the government for three years.

“We’re not feeling intimidated by his endorsement at all. You are in Osun State throughout last week when the pensioners were protesting the nonpayment of their pension arrears. Won’t that affect him in the election? You are talking about the people that have been induced to come and stage-manage a kind of endorsement is that one endorsement.”

“Forget about these induced endorsements that we are having here and there. Where were those people in 2018 when he was floored? He is going to be defeated again flat. He would be defeated hands down.
“What happened in 2018 cannot happen again, because we’re going to defeat him with wide margin. You can only rig when you’re unpopular. This time around we would win them with wide margin.”

Bisi also spoke on the state of security in the state. He said: “There’s nothing like peace in Osun State under this APC’s administration if we have to tell ourselves the truth.

“There are incessant armed robbery attacks. Iragbiji, Okuku, Ila, Iree, everywhere, there is no bank that’s functioning there now. Look at what our people in Osun central are facing presently whereby they cannot do any banking transaction unless they come to Osogbo. Which kind of peace do we call that?
“Up till now, the governor and his men have not told us the location of the security helicopter, which was purchased by tax payers money in Osun and should have been deployed against dare devil armed robbers and banditry that have ravaged the state.

“We are using this medium to ask them to provide the helicopter they use our Tax payers to procure.”
He said while reacting to the rumoured defection of party members to the ruling APC that no right thinking person would leave PDP to join APC in the state.
“The party is in disarray. As we’re speaking now, it has two party chairmen as Mr. Abdulrasak Salinsile and Mr. Gboyega Famodun are both laying claim to the chairmanship position in the state.”

“The last time after the exit of former Governor Isiaka Adeleke, PDP presented Senator Ademola Adeleke for senatorial election and we won with margin. We won nine out of the ten local governments when Aregbesola was the sitting governor of the state.
“And the last gubernatorial election in 2018, Senator Ademola Adeleke contested again against Oyetola, the incumbent, and he defeated him at the first ballot before the inconclusive thing was introduced. Something we had never heard before.
“We defeated them that time and President Muhammad Buhari said PDP was defeated in Osun through the use of ‘remove’ control. So, we are virile, we are able, we are agile and I’m promising you that come July 16 we are going to floor APC in the next governorship election,” he concluded.