The Senator Sharafadeen Alli Campaign Organisation (SSACO) has described the rejection of Governor Seyi Makinde by the leadership of the All Progressives Movement (APM) in the South-South zone as confirmation that his presidential ambition has failed.
The APM South-South leaders, in a newspaper advertorial on Wednesday, passed a vote of no confidence in Makinde, accusing him of lacking the substance, political will and focus to lead the party effectively.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the SSACO Director of Media and Publicity, Bisi Oladele, said the rejection vindicated the organisation’s position that Makinde was merely playing a spoiler’s game by using an alleged presidential ambition to negotiate a soft landing ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The organisation alleged that Makinde knew he could not win the presidential race but was using his position as a serving governor to undermine President Bola Tinubu’s votes in South-West Nigeria.
“The good news is that he will not only lose to President Tinubu in Oyo State; his lackey — Hon. Bimbo Adekanmbi — whom he is desperate to install for an undemocratic third term, will be flatly defeated by Senator Sharafadeen Alli, whose Oyo AHEAD agenda will put Oyo State on a faster development lane from next year.
“The SSACO is glad that more stakeholders are now seeing through Makinde’s lies and rejecting his antics, confirming that no Nigerian takes Makinde seriously again. His ambition is what it is: a smokescreen and dead on arrival,” the statement said.
The campaign organisation also pointed to what it described as the gradual collapse of Makinde’s political structures in Oyo State, alleging that associates and party leaders were resigning in large numbers and distancing themselves from him over decisions it considered selfish.
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“If a man cannot manage his party in his own state, how can he manage Nigeria?” a South-South APM leader reportedly asked at a meeting on Tuesday.
The statement added that the South-South stakeholders shared the concerns expressed in Oyo State, accusing Makinde of failing to recognise established party structures and abandoning those who supported his victories in the 2019 and 2023 governorship elections.
“In the past few weeks, no single day passes without one aide or the other resigning from his sinking cabinet. It has shown that Governor Seyi Makinde, who cannot manage his own men within Oyo State, needs not be taken seriously about his ambition. It is dead on arrival,” the statement concluded.
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