‘Oyo elites blackmailing Makinde over insecurity’
By Stephen Gbadamosi
A chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Moronkola Thomas, has thrown his weight behind Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde, alleging that the elites are blackmailing the latter over the issue of insecurity.
Speaking at the weekend, the former APC commissioner said that “forget the elites’ conspiracy and grandstanding by some politicians in Oyo State, the masses of the state are still with Governor Seyi Makinde, notwithstanding the recent security breach in Ibarapa land.”
Thomas, a three-time commissioner and senior special executive assistant on political matters to the late Governor Abiola Ajimobi, said the vast majority of the common people in the state were still backing the governor, irrespective of the incident in Ibarapa and the occasional security breaches in parts of the state capital.
Makinde’s popularity was deemed to have been affected following the governor’s alleged indifference to the plight of Ibarapa people in the face of ceaseless attacks by suspected herders in the area, until a Yoruba activist, Chief Sunday Adeyemo, a.k.a. Sunday Igboho, stormed Igangan and flushed out the Sarkin Fulani, Alhaji Abdulkadir and his supporters for their alleged complicity in kidnapping.
Speaking in an interview on a privately owned radio station in Ibadan, Fresh FM, Thomas said: “Regardless of whatever is happening in the state now, the masses are still with Governor Makinde.
“That is the truth of the matter and you have to come to terms with that reality. It does not have to be the elites.
The masses, I can tell you are still with Makinde. I relate with the masses. I live among them and I know what they are saying.
“Anyone who wants to beat Makinde in 2023 must come up with a strategy that is superior to Makinde’s. It is not for me to assess him.
But, what I am hearing from teachers, civil servants, traders and others is what I have just told you.”
He described Gov. Makinde as a better philanthropist than a politician, adding that the governor, like the late Chief MKO Abiola, used philanthropy as a strategy to gain the people’s sympathy and consequently, win elections.
“Power flows from God only, who is the real custodian of power. Everyone who is exercising power is doing so because God wants him to do so. “Everybody has his own strategy of winning political power.
Just like MKO Abiola, who started as a philanthropist and used that to move into politics and contest and win election, Gov. Makinde has done the same thing and he got the sympathy of the people,” he said.
Giving an insight into why the APC lost the governorship election in the state, he said the result of a study commissioned by the late Ajimobi had shown that the APC was going to have a bad outing in the election.
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“After the emergence of Bayo Adelabu as the governorship candidate, there was no genuine reconciliation, particularly with the aggrieved governorship aspirants.
“They were resolving some of the issues on the campaign ground. Some people did not openly complain, but fought against the party and its candidate underground. “Adelabu himself was constrained.
They were telling him who to relate with and who not to relate with. I pity him for all the money and the energy he spent.
“I remember he was going to visit a prominent traditional ruler in the state and was almost at the palace before he was called and asked to abort the trip. APC lost the election right from within the APC,” he added
