Following its initial grandstanding not to participate in the scheduled Saturday, April 27, 2024 council elections as announced by the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC), the Oyo State All Progressives Congress (APC) said it might have laid to rest the uncertainty surrounding its participation in the exercise being planned by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) under Governor Seyi Makinde.
Publicity Secretary of Oyo APC, Olawale Sadare, who made this known to the media, at the weekend, said: “It was true the opposition party would participate in the council poll.
“The unanimous decision at the stakeholders’ meeting held at the party’s secretariat in Oke-Ado, Ibadan, was that we would participate with a view to winning most of the available seats in the local councils and local council development areas.
“I can assure you that by the time we are done with our final round of consultations on or before Monday, we will roll out a schedule of activities since OYSIEC has written to us about the extension of the deadline for the conduct of primary, which is now August 31, 2023. We are progressives in politics and we are always ready to play our part as democrats. Don’t forget that the main duty of political parties is to field candidates in major elections,” he said.
“We have had to face serious pressure from party faithful who want to contest and serve the masses at the grassroots as council chairmen and councillors. We have seen what the present administration has turned the third tier of government into in the last four years and it is now imperative for the APC to rescue the situation. Even Makinde said openly that he was not in support of autonomy for local councils and this explains why he does not allow the council administrators to function as expected.” (Guardian)