On Wednesday the deputy governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State, Hon. Adekunle Akinlade, has described Yorubas in the South West as very intelligent individuals who would not vote based on ethnic sentiments in 2023.
Akinlade said the people of the South West would rather reject the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that has “put them under extreme hunger and poverty.”
He made this statement at an extended meeting of the PDP in Yewa South Local Government, held at the Engr. Tetede Hall, Ilaro, Ogun State.
The 2019 governorship candidate said some individuals are already ‘dreaming’ that the South West votes are already in the kitty for the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu; saying, however, that this is not true.
According to Akinlade, the PDP is already in control of two out of the six states in the South West, expressing confidence that Ogun would join the list in 2023.
“Atiku Abubakar will win in 2023. I am saying this based on available data. In 2019 when the APC had President Muhammadu Buhari as a returning candidate and with governors in all the six States of the South West, PDP won in two States. In the remaining four states, the margin of win was very slim. This was a time when there was no BVAS and other technologies introduced by INEC. That time, winners were decided at the collation centres. You all know what happened in 2019. That is no more possible.
“The Osun election has shown us that rigging is no more possible. Your votes will count now. You just turn out en masse to vote for the PDP all through.
“Today in the South West, PDP has two states, Oyo and Osun and I know Ogun will join the list.
“When some people were talking to us in Abuja, we told them we are going to deliver the six states of the South West for Atiku. There are insinuations that people might consider ethnicity, but I told them that we Yorubas are very wise and we hardly forget things. Someone who treated us with injustice in 2019 cannot come now to preach ethnic sentiment. Did they forget then that we are brothers?
“We are going to pay them back in their own coin. We will vote for the PDP and Atiku will win,” Akinlade posited.
He maintained further that northerners would vote for Atiku, especially now that President Buhari is not on the ballot.
The PDP, according to Akinlade, is “a party of hope, freedom and self determination; a party that allows and encourages you to attain your dreams unhindered.”
