BY MAYOWA SAMUEL
The Oyo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, has asked the state’s Deputy Governor, Rauf Olaniyan, to immediately resign following his defection to the opposition party, the All Progressives Congress on Sunday.
Disclosing this in a statement issued on Monday, the party’s Publicity Secretary in the state, Akeem Olatunji, said the deputy governor should resign “since he willfully abandoned the political party and the votes that produced him as such on the party’s joint ticket.”
The party warned that it would not allow Olaniyan and his new party to enjoy the benefits of the votes cast for the PDP at the 2019 governorship election.
He said the PDP leadership in the state, South-West, and national levels all intervened at different times to resolve whatever the situation fueling the suspected defection plan but Olaniyan left.
The statement reads in part, “Our position is simple and very clear on this matter and as a matter of legal implication, the votes in any election in Nigeria are to political parties, and not candidates.
“It is on this note that the PDP as the ruling party in the state is advising the Deputy Governor, Rauf Olaniyan, not to be carried away by the lies and deceits told him by a political neophyte such as ‘Mr jagba’ and be bamboozled into self-delusion of thinking he can be used as a tool to steal Oyo people’s mandate through the backdoor.
“Failure to follow this advice and adhere strictly to it from the PDP which is the legitimate owner of every single vote cast by the electorate in the 2019 governorship election, the PDP shall not hesitate to immediately deploy every constitutional means to prevent this daylight robbery.
“We’re determined and resolved to retrieve the party’s mandate being withheld illegally and unlawfully by the deputy Governor, Rauf Olaniyan because it belongs to the people of Oyo state who have handled same to the PDP.”
