EXCLUSIVE: Crisis Imminent As Makinde Moves To Impeach Deputy

• Speaker Summons Meeting

A plot to impeach Raufu Olaniyan, deputy governor of Oyo State has been hatched, OYOINSIGHT.COM can authoritatively report.

Sources in the know said like in 2006 when former governor Rashidi Ladoja was impeached, the state may be plunged into another round of crisis.

This is coming 24 hours after the Igboho-born retired permanent secretary dumped the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC.

To kickstart the plan, the speaker of the state assembly, Adebo Ogundoyin, has summoned the meeting of the 26 lawmakers elected on the platform of the PDP for a yet-to-be decided location.

This is just as sources told OYOINSIGHT.COM that each of the 26 legislators will get N5 million for the task.

Though some of the lawmakers, in a chat with this newspaper, said they are not disposed to the removal as it is likely to put the state in turmoil, they however noted that they won’t preempt Ogundoyin.

”At tomorrow’s meeting, they will ask the lawmakers to append their signature to a document that is being prepared. Anybody Makinde picks as running mate will be appointed by the governor to continue for the remainder of his tenure,” one of the lawmakers told OYOINSIGHT.COM.

Another source who is close to the leadership of the house said: “It didn’t start today. They have attempted it several times before. But because the deputy governor was popular among majority of the lawmakers, it never materialized.”

A Peep Into The Assembly Composition

While PDP has 26 lawmakers, the APC has 6. However, only 19 of the lawmakers were given returned tickets in the PDP. Initially, Makinde wanted to return 13 before he was informed of the implication in the assembly. He later added 6 to it, so as to have a comfortable majority in the 32-man assembly.

In the APC, on the other hand, except Seyi Adisa of AFIJIO state constituency who is not contesting in order to honour the zoning arrangement in the area, the 5 other lawmakers have secured a returned ticket.

It is however unsure whether the remaining 7 PDP lawmakers who were not considered for a returned ticket would support the impeachment process.

As at press time, it was not sure whether or not the 7 PDP lawmakers from Okeogun where Olaniyan hails from would support the impeachment process.

Folarin: Olaniyan Has Till May 29, 2023 To Leave Office As Deputy Governor

The senator representing Oyo Central Senatorial District and the 2023 Oyo State Governorship Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Teslim Folarin has welcomed the incumbent Deputy Governor of the state, Engr. Rauf Olaniyan into the progressive party.

The Oke-Ogun-born technocrat cum politician made the official announcement on Fresh FM Ibadan 105.9hz on Sunday evening.

The Chairman Senate Committee on Local Content, in a statement he personally signed and made available to journalists, described the defection of Engr. Rauf Olaniyan as a welcome development and a big catch for APC. It is also a reflection of the arrogant, non-accommodating kind of person the self-acclaimed leader of the PDP is.

“The Oyo State APC family is very excited that the Executive Deputy Governor of Oyo State, His Excellency Engr. AbdulRauf ‘Remi Olaniyan has joined us with thousands of his supporters across the 351 Wards of the 33 local government areas of the state.

“Engr. Olaniyan is one of the few technocrat-turned-politician I admire and respect. Together with H.E Olaniyan and other well meaning stakeholders in Oyo State politics, we shall rescue the state in 2023 from the misruling and self-serving Governor Makinde PDP-led government”.

“Oyo PDP is unfortunate for losing a great asset. There is no denying the fact that His Excellency Engr. Rauf Olaniyan is a cool-headed man, highly cerebral and undoubtedly the most experienced deputy governor in the history of Nigeria. However, he has never been allowed to give his excellent service delivery for the betterment of the downtrodden masses of Oyo State due to the self-centeredness and inferiority complex of Governor Seyi Makinde”.

“It is visible to the blind and audible to the deaf that His Excellency Olaniyan is a victimised deputy governor of the state, to the extent that he is sidelined in major decisions concerning the affairs of the Pacesetter State”

“With personality such as Engr. Olaniyan in APC, PDP will suffer electoral humiliation in 2023 general elections. The strongest indicator for conducting an opinion poll is the uncontrollable exodus that has been hitting Oyo State PDP since 2019. His Excellency Olaniyan’s defection to APC is a morale booster for us ahead of the 2023 elections. We will give him a rousing welcome after the 2022 APC Presidential Primary Election scheduled to hold between Monday 6th June and Tuesday 7th June 2022”.

“Meanwhile, I want to state that His Excellency Olaniyan’s position as validly elected Deputy Governor of Oyo State is secured and constitutionally-backed; his tenure ends on 29th of May 2023. Therefore, the ruling PDP must perish the impeachment agenda or further victimisation in any form. APC has zero tolerance for harassment, humiliation and victimisation of any of her members.”

“H.E Olaniyan and his teeming supporters will not be the last to join the Oyo APC Rescue Mission 2023, many more PDP political office holders and their chieftains will announce their transfers in no distant future”.

PDP: APC, Folarin Can’t Prevent Olaniyan’s Removal — We’ll Use Every Legal Means

The ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Oyo State chapter, has told the deputy governor, Engr. Rauf Aderemi Olaniyan to resign immediately since he has willfully abandoned the political party and the votes that produced him as such on the party’s joint ticket.

The ruling party warned against any attempt by Olaniyan and his new party to steal Oyo people’s mandate through the backdoor after the last ruling party was utterly rejected at the 2019 governorship poll.

This statement follows the deputy governor’s dramatic defection from the ruling PDP to one of the opposition parties in the state, the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Sunday.

The state Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Akeem Olatunji, in a press release on Monday morning, June 6, noted that the PDP leadership in the state, south west region, and national levels all intervened at different intervals to resolve whatever the situation fueling the suspected defection plan was to no avail.

Disappointed by comments credited to the deputy governor after officially announcing his defection from the PDP to the APC that even though he has left PDP, he still remains the deputy governor, the ruling party cautioned against what it called selfish motivation noting that such move amount to daylight robbery of the people’s mandate.

The party said Olaniyan should not pretend not to know what is right next to do after leaving the political platform that sponsored him and Makinde on the joint ticket if truly he has any atom of the Yoruba ‘omoluabi’ toga he always ascribed to himself.

“Oyo people did not vote for a PDP/APC joint ticket, they voted entirely for a PDP mandate”, the ruling party declared, adding that while section 40 of the constitution of Nigeria guarantees freedom of association of any person, the deputy governor ought to be enlightened by the same Constitution when it stipulated that the ticket upon which he (Olaniyan) contested the 2019 governorship election alongside Governor Makinde as a deputy was not an independent candidate ticket.

“It is only when you contest election as an independent candidate and win and then decides to move to any political party of your choice that you become the owner of the votes cast by the electorates, unfortunately for Olaniyan who wants to eat his cake and still have it.

The Oyo PDP, which is the rightful owner of the mandate will retrieve it back in no distant time using every available legal means if Olaniyan fails to humbly resign as a gentleman with his new move.

“Our position is simple and very clear on this matter and as a matter of legal implication, the votes in any election in Nigeria are to political parties, and not candidates,”. And it is on this note that the PDP as the ruling party in the state is advising the Deputy Governor, Rauf Olaniyan, not to be carried away by the lies and deceits told him by a political neophyte such as ‘Mr jagba’ and be bamboozled into self delusion of thinking he can be used a tool to steal Oyo people’s mandate through the backdoor.

“Failure to follow this advise and adhere strictly to it from the PDP which is the legitimate owner of every single vote casted by the electorates in the 2019 governorship election, the PDP shall not hesitate to immediately deploy every constitutional means to prevent this daylight robbery.

“We’re determined and resolved to retrieve the party’s mandate being withheld illegally and unlawfully by the deputy Governor, Engr Rauf Olaniyan because it belongs to the people of Oyo state who have handled same to the PDP.” Oyo PDP declared.

According to the ruling party’s statement, the defection of Olaniyan was not surprising because his frolicking and hobnobbing with the APC over time has made his eventual move an open secret which was widely reported in the news by the media.

It was only shameful and disappointing that Olaniyan had repeatedly looked straight into the live camera and told unbridled lies multiple times by openly denying the media reports which have proved to be true after all.

The ruling PDP in Oyo in its statement recalled how the incumbent Anambra state Governor, Professor Charles Soludo, went ahead to record a landslide victory at the poll despite the then Deputy Governor, some APGA members of the National Assembly and other appointees of the Obiano led APGA government defecting to APC which attest to the fact that no amount of blackmail, propaganda and hang-up can change people’s determination to support continuity of good governance.

According to Oyo PDP, Ondo and Kogi state deputy governors made same moves prior to elections in their respective states but the state governors went to record landslide victories at the guber polls, therefore, Teslim Folarin and his likes in the Oyo APC should stop bloating in self delusion following Olaniyan’s action stressing that Seyi Makinde who has earned the trust of the Oyo masses has proved the APC wrong with the unprecedented success and consistency with the achievements recorded in three years.

The party added that there is no vacancy in the Agodi Government House because the 2023 election is already a forgone issue as the people of Oyo state who are well satisfied with the people oriented policies of Makinde led PDP administration are ever ready to make a repeat statement with their votes more than 2019.

The party however, said it will not dignify Senator Teslim Folarin who it described as a political orphan in the state with a response to his hasty remarks following Olaniyan’s defection to his faction of the APC stressing that Folarin was merely trying to cash in on a seemingly trending topical issue in the state in order to gain political relevance and should focus more on his desolated party than further exposing his overbearing desperation to become governor by all means.

SOURCE:OYOINSIGHT