An Abuja-based lawyer and grassroot politician and youth mobiliser in Osun State Pelumi Olajengbesi has described as laughable, the pledge of Osun State outgoing governor Gboyega Oyetola to deliver one million Osun votes for All Progressives Congress presidential candidate Bola Tinubu in the 2023 general elections.
Olajengbesi said it is an irony that Oyetola made such a tall promise when he himself could not garner one million votes in the July 16, 2022 governorship election in Osun, a development which culminated in his embarrassing defeat as an incumbent.
The lawyer said going by the result of the governorship election in Osun last July and the resounding victory of the Governor-Elect Senator Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party, the people of Osun have made their stand known: that they are for any other party except the APC.
According to reports, Oyetola on Thursday at an APC march for Tinubu in Osun boasted that he will deliver one million votes for the APC presidential candidate using the youths.
Commenting, Olajengbesi said, “The comment of the outgoing governor Gboyega Oyetola to deliver one million votes for APC presidential candidate is a joke taken too far. It is a mockery of Oyetola who himself could not get one million votes in the July 16, 2022 governorship election where he was given an humiliating defeat by the Governor-Elect Senator Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party.
“For the records, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission, the total number of registered voters in Osun is 1,955,657 and the polling units in the state is 3,763.
“However, results of the July 16, 2022 Osun governorship election show that only 42.16% of the 1.95 million registered voters in the state voted.
“Senator Ademola Adeleke got 403,371 votes to emerge victorious while Oyetola barely managed to poll 375,027 votes after some alleged backyard manipulations of the system, alleged vote-buying, amongst others – these are subject for another day. Yet, Senator Adeleke won 17 of the 30 local government areas leaving Oyetola, an incumbent governor, with just 13 LGAs.
“The general public should not be swayed or beguiled by the bogus promise of a failed politician like the outgoing governor. Osun State is for PDP and the good people of the state has demonstrated so in the last election which ejected Oyetola. The July 16, 2022 Osun governorship election is a vote of no-confidence on the entire structure of the APC at state and federal level. Nigerians are tired of being deceived every election season by expired and selfish politicians who contribute nothing to nation-building but their pockets.
“The presidential candidate of the PDP Atiku Abubakar is a known and trusted politician having served as vice president from 1999 to 2007. There is no doubt that Senator Adeleke’s overwhelming bloc votes in Osun will go to Atiku in next February’s presidential poll. APC ti lule!”