The Oyo State chapter of the Labour Party (LP) has endorsed Seyi Makinde, governor of the state, as its gubernatorial candidate for the March 11 election.
The party made this known at a press conference on Sunday. Tawfiq Akinwale is the LP governorship candidate in the state.
LP Chairman, Sadiq Atayese said the party opted for Makinde because he’s the candidate with character, competence, and capacity.
Atayese said the party’s working committee believes in the candidacy of Makinde as one that serves the interest of residents.
He said the Oyo LP decided to work with the candidate whose ideology tallies with its own in terms of securing lives and property, infrastructural development, food security, education and human capital development.
“Going by the results of the February 25 presidential election and political realities in our state, it is obvious that no individual party can win the coming gubernatorial election single-handedly,” Atayese said.
“The main priority should be to ensure that citizens win by electing a candidate that best serves their collective interests.
“Against this backdrop, the right thing now is for parties and their candidates to form alliances with candidates of like ideology.
“It is of note that the PDP administration under Governor Makinde has presented its scorecard from the health sector with the provisions of primary healthcare centres in every ward to security and others.
“There is no doubt that his governance ideas in the establishment of a park management system which other states now emulate have made him a leader with uncommon innovation.
“From our evaluation as a party, Makinde has done well and we know that continuous development of a state is a function of stability in governance.”
Atayese said there has been “meaningful development” in Oyo in the last four years, adding that it is logical that the good work continues.
“We have the responsibility to maintain the nobility of our heritage and we the citizens have to stand by it,” he said.
“We thoroughly assessed the various governorship candidates for the March 11 election in terms of character, competence, capacity and compassion for the people.
“Governor Makinde excelled over the others, therefore, LP in Oyo state has decided to use its structure throughout the 33 local government areas to support his re-election for another four years of giant development.”
He, however, asked the electorate to vote for other LP candidates at the state assembly elections.
