The lawmaker representing Oyo Central Senatorial District at the Senate, Senator Teslim Folarin, has declared his intention to contest the Oyo State governorship election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress in 2023.
Folarin’s declaration came barely 24 hours after a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Adebayo Adelabu, announced at a press conference that he would seem to contest for the same office.
Folarin made the declaration at the APC Secretariat in Ibadan on Tuesday just as the only Peoples Democratic Party senator from the state, Senator Kola Balogun, formally joined the APC at the same ceremony.
Hundreds of Labour Party members from 25 local government areas of the state also defected to the APC at the ceremony.
Folarin said the presence of late Lam Adesina’s son, Dapo; late Adebayo Alao-Akala’s son, Olamiju; late Abiola Ajimobi’s son, Idris and many others were proof that the crisis in the APC was over.
He faulted Governor Seyi Makinde’s administration on security and other sectors while accusing the governor of causing insecurity in the state by his actions and inactions.
Folarin threatened retaliation if the APC members were killed or attacked again, saying such would no longer be taken lightly.
He said, “He is not one of us, and you can give any interpretation you like. He brought a mad dog in and said he should be killing people.
“But we have told him that we shall retaliate with three if he slaps us once. Let him dare us. The woman whose son was killed at Iwo Road Shopping Complex, last year is sick now with a stroke.
“But I come today and want you to support me, and I want to contest the governorship election in our system in 2023.”
Balogun also faulted Makinde for insecurity in the state and also said the policy of powering streetlights with diesel generators at this stage was a waste.
The senator said he did not defect to the APC but had come back home to where he belonged.
He said he won the senatorial election on the platform of the PDP in 2019 by the grace of God and the support of the progressives who supported him.
He said, “When Senator Lanlehin left him, he said, no problem; Mulikat (Adeola) left him, he said no problem; Olopoeyan left him, he said no problem, and others left, he said no problem, Balogun has left him now, he said no problem. But there are a lot of problems for him now.”
While receiving the defectors, the APC chairman, Isaac Omodewu, said the party was now united, saying many more politicians would still defect to the party very soon.
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