Gubernatorial candidate of Accord in Oyo State, Adebayo Adelabu has declared that the party lost the national assembly elections in the state due to what he described as Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s tsunami.
Adelabu noted that Tinubu’s tsunami was one of the major reasons why Senatorial and House of Representatives candidates of the party lost during the last presidential and national assembly elections.
Adelabu, a former deputy governor (operations) of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) made these disclosures during the inauguration of the caretaker committee for the party in Oyo state.
The National Chairman of the party, Mohammad Nalado was represented by National Legal Adviser of the party, Maxwell Ngbudem and the National Vice Chairman South West, Alhaji Dokun Babarinde during the inauguration of the caretaker committee.
The committee to steer the affairs of the party pending when a congress would be held has Alhaji Isiaka Salami as Chairman while Mr. Bashiru Ayobami will serve as Secretary. Other members are; Hon Fatai Salawu, Mrs Bimpe Martins and Hon Ayodele Oyajide.
Adelabu while speaking during the inauguration of the committee insisted that one of the reasons for the failure of the party’s senatorial and house of representatives to win the elections was due to the popularity of Tinubu who contested on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Accord candidate while speaking further, said it was disheartening that after the party candidates had spent so much money to campaign and mobilise for the election, but Tinubu tsunami made them lose at the national assembly elections.
He added that candidates of the party have spent close to N3 billion during the electioneering process..
The ex-CBN deputy governor narrated a whole lot of what the candidates had gone through in the hands of the past leadership due to their selfish pursuits.
He said the one week extension of the governorship by INEC was a blessing in disguise for the party.
Adelabu said, “There are a number of reasons that we lost the presidential and National Assembly elections due to Asiwaju’s tsunami. No candidate campaigned more than our candidates for the National Assembly positions. Vote cast was for Asiwaju, not APC. It was for Atiku not PDP. And for Obi, not LP. It was about individuals and not parties.
“We are not divided along any line. We are one and we remain one in our party. As a political party, the only objective for any political party is to contest elections and win and not for political trading. We decided to opt into Accord from the APC because we saw it was the next popular party that has reached and spread after the other two big major parties.
“The forthcoming governorship election too would be about individuals and not parties. We have spent over N3billion by all our candidates put together since we joined the party till date. What the sacked excos did amount to betrayal and backstabbing. It is not unexpected but we could not tolerate”
