Gov. Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State says the gang up by opposition parties to dislodge the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state is an exercise in futility.
Ajimobi said this while addressing supporters at an APC rally in Ibadan on Monday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that APC campaign train led by the governor and his wife, Florence, held at Bodija Market and in Yemetu area of Ibadan.
Ajimobi was reacting to a statement credited to an opposition governorship candidate who had boasted of a coalition to dislodge the APC in the state.
The governor said such a gang up against the party in the past by opposition parties had failed, maintaining that the new plan would also suffer the same fate.
“Some opposition parties are boasting that we will not return. They have boasted like this before and we beat them.
“We know them to be political interlopers. They go from one party to another,” he said.
Ajimobi, who is also the APC senatorial candidate for Oyo South, urged the people to vote all the party’s candidates in the forthcoming general elections.
He said that he had in the last eight years worked hard to turn around the fortunes of the state from the dilapidated structure inherited from his predecessors.
“When we assumed office in 2011, we met a dilapidated structure, but today, we have in the last eight years built befitting structures that the people are proud of,” he said.
The governor said that the APC governorship candidate, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, towered high above others in pedigree and record of achievements.
“Those that have been so hungry before getting to office will only get there and amass wealth and show nothing but greed,’’ he said.
Mrs Ajimobi, on her part, called on women and the youths to vote massively for APC candidates in the state, including President Muhammadu Buhari.
She also urged them not to leave their voting centres until the results were collated to ensure their votes counted.
Chief Akin Oke, the APC Chairman in the state, expressed confidence on the party’s victory in the general elections.
He described the coalition claim by opposition figures in the state as an empty threat.
“Many of them have had the opportunity of ruling this state before and they failed the masses.
“ The APC met the state in a mess and Gov. Ajimobi cleaned it up,” he said.
Adelabu, in his remarks, promised to build on Ajimobi’s achievements and do more where necessary.