The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says it has woken up f
rom its slumber, determined to unseat the Labor Party (LP) in Ondo State.
Ayodele Fayose, the governor-elect of Ekiti State, made the assertion at a victory rally organized for him in Akure, the Ondo State capital, by the state chapter of the PDP.
Mr. Fayose stated that both the Labor Party and the All Progressive Congress (APC) should brace to receive red cards come the 2016 governorship election in Ondo.
He disclosed that the PDP in Ondo State, which had suffered from lack of internal democracy, was now formidable and ready to win all elections in the state.
The Ekiti State governor elect said the era of imposition of candidates by the PDP was now in the past, adding that his party was fully prepared for the 2015 general elections.
“When popular candidates emerge through primary elections, the party [will be] sure of victory at the general polls,” Mr. Fayose said.
He also said he was optimistic that the PDP would emerge victorious in the coming August 9, 2014 governorship election in Osun State. He warned the APC to desist from propaganda on the pages of national newspapers.
Mr. Fayose said that part of the strategy for wresting power from the incumbent Labor Party government in Ondo State was to continually hold rallies in the various local governments.
"We will be holding rallies every time and I am ready to work for Ondo State to unseat the present Labor Party government. We will strengthen the party,” he said.
He added: "Though I am not in a leadership tussle with anyone in the southwest, my mission is to claim the region back to the PDP and I will make myself available in all rallies of the party."
Speaking at the event, Olusola Oke, the PDP’s governorship candidate in the last general election in Ondo State, said the party was ready to unseat the Labor Party government. Mr. Oke said the era of “prostitution politics” embarked upon by Governor Olusegun Mimiko would not be tolerated anymore, adding that the ship of the LP was already sinking.
"Light has come back to Ondo State, and PDP is ready to reclaim its mandate from this political prostitution.
"The era where someone will be claiming [to be a] Peoples Democratic Party member in Abuja and be destroying the party in Ondo is over,” he said.
Olaiya Oni, a former state chairman of the Labor Party who has now joined the PDP, urged party supporters to join hands in condemning Mr. Mimiko’s tyrannical government.
Mr. Oni described the Labor Party as a failure, adding that many of the party’s policies were unfavorable to the common man. He accused the Mimiko administration of overtaxing the people of the state.
Speaking also, the PDP state chairman, Ebenezer Alabi, said the days of the Labor Party government in Ondo were numbered. Mr. Alabi added that the wind of change would soon blow across the southwest states of the country, adding that the PDP was ready to regain its lost glory from the opposition parties.
"We are full of hope and expectations that the Fayose antidote that neutralized the APC poison in Ekiti will guarantee the PDP success in Osun State come August 9, 2014, victory in Ogun, Oyo and Lagos on the 28th of February 2015, as well as delivered in Ondo in 2016,” he said.
The rally was attended by many prominent PDP figures, including the chairman of the southwest PDP mobilization committee, Buruji Kashamu.
Hundreds of Labor Party members in the state declared their defection to the PDP fold. --