The tussle for who steps into Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s shoes as the next Governor of the State of Osun has thickened as the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has appointed Senator Bukola Saraki, a presidential aspirant on the party’s platform and President of the Senate, as Chairman of its 85-member campaign council for the gubernatorial election slated for September 22.
National chairman of the PDP inaugurated the campaign council at the party Secretariat, Legacy House, Abuja, on Monday.
Responding to the appointment, Saraki expressed optimism that his party will sweep the vote but urged President Muhammadu Buhari to stick to the pledge he made to German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and British Prime, Minister Theresa May, who visited the country last week, that he would conduct a free, fair and credible election. Saraki would want the president to use the forthcoming Osun poll to underscore his commitment to that promise.
All these came in the wake of a declaration by the PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, who branded the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, as a haven for corrupt people, an accusation the APC was yet to respond to at the time of this reporting. .
Saraki hinged his optimism of victory for his party’s candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke, on a purported ground swell of popularity for the PDP in Osun, and an alleged disenchantment of Osun workers and people in general against the ruling party in the state, who the Senate President claimed were yearning for change.
Declaring that Osun is a must-win state for the PDP, Saraki said: “The election is important because the PDP has lost two governorship elections in the South-West, Ekiti and Ondo states. We must win Osun to prove that Osun is the home ground of the PDP.
“The APC is already no more popular in Osun. I hope that President Muhammad Buhari will live up to his promise to world leaders that elections will be free and fair in Nigeria.”
He then urged the PDP leadership to exploit the alleged ‘disunity in the APC’ to win the September 22 governorship vote.
Secondus alleged that certain corrupt persons and their kins with slush money were mobilising to use their illicit wealth to help President Buhari and the APC back to power in 2019.
The chairman made the sweeping allegation while inaugurating the party’s campaign council for Osun State, accusing the APC of perpetrating the worst form of corruption through vote buying and other forms of rigging.
“The APC has made itself a safe haven for corrupt persons and they are converging there not only to get relief but to help install them come 2019 for more protection,” Secondus said, adding: “Enough is enough; PDP will not tolerate Osun being rigged like Ekiti. We have a popular candidate and the performance of the APC ruling government has been awful with months of salaries owed to workers.
“We are aware that the electoral commission that is supposed to operate as an unbiased umpire in the conduct of elections has suddenly made itself a parastatal of the Federal Government, conniving with the APC and security agencies to exchange results.
“Even security agencies whose allegiance should be to the constitution and people of Nigeria have allowed itself to behave as if they are operatives of the ruling APC.
“We decided to set up this high-powered committee to demonstrate the importance we attach to this election, all our presidential aspirants and some state governors are members plus all other critical stakeholders from the South-West and other parts of the country.”
Secondus implored lovers of democracy globally to show more than passing interest in the Osun State election “because the APC is not disposed to conducting a free and fair election.”