Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has lost its relevance in the Southwest, following the tearing of its membership card by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The governor noted that the ex-President brought the party to the region and made it relevant.
He warned the opposition against importing into Osun State hoodlums and mercenaries who may cause mayhem during Saturday’s Osun West senatorial by-election.
Aregbesola spoke at the campaign for All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Senator Mudashir Hussain, at Ikire in Irewole Local Government Area.
The governor, who earlier visited the Akire of Ikire, Oba Olatunde Falabi, said the emergence of APC at the Federal level had ended PDP’s reign in the country.
He said PDP’s era had gone in Nigeria, particularly in the Southwest, as many of the party’s founding fathers had dumped it.
Aregbesola said: “Why would any sensible politician at this time want to associate with a party that is not only drowning but dead in the Southwest?
“It will be an exercise in futility for anybody to now want to wake up a dead horse through the July 8 Osun West senatorial by-election when founding fathers of the party have not only deserted the party but wouldn’t want to associate with it.
“We are all living witnesses to how the former President (Obasanjo) openly at his ward declared that the PDP had gone beyond redemption, hence his declaration of the obituary of the party with symbolic trashing of his membership card.”
The governor warned troublemakers, especially the opposition nursing the idea of unleashing militants on the people during the July 8 by-election, to jettison the plan.
He said: “Why will anybody think that the people of Osun, who stood firm even in the face of provocation during the last general election under the supervision of the PDP-led government then, would now waver from such determination?
“It is on record that despite the intimidation by the then security apparatus, who invaded the state with weird-looking officers with strange-looking dogs, could not deter our people from associating with our good governance? Why will they be deterred by militants?
“We use this medium to warn any militant, who the opposition has contracted, to think twice before coming to Osun. The government is ever ready to use every lawful means at its disposal to smoke them out of the state.”
www.sojworld.com © July 5, 2017.
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