*As APC Rep Aspirant Lateef Olawumi debunks Muraina’s claim he has secured APC ticket in Ibarapa Central/North
By KEMI KASUMU
All Progressives Congress (APC)’s House of Representatives Aspirant for the Ibarapa Central/North Federal Constituency in Oyo State, Hon. Lateef Olawumi, has described a claim by Hon. Ajibola Muraina of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), currently a Federal lawmaker in Abuja, that he has finalised his move to APC to secure its reps ticket for the fourth term.
Rep Muraina, in an exclusive report by Oyo Insight online newspaper, was said to be pulling out of PDP because of heat hurled on his likes in the party by Governor Seyi Makinde, who battles those he allegedly met in his bid to have a second term in Agodi.
Hon. Ajibola Muraina, PDP Reps, Ibarapa Central/North, Oyo State.
As a result of the heat in the PDP, Ajibola Muraina, a three term lawmaker representing Ibarapa Central and North Federal Constituency, has been exposed to have been carrying fake news around that he will be the first person to have secured the All Progressives Congress, APC’s ticket for the Ibarapa Central/North Federal Constituency.
Muraina, according to the report, purported claim was coming on the heels his failed bid to get the ticket of PDP, which had been foreclosed with the selection of Anthony Adepoju, Chairman of the Water Corporation of Oyo State, who he defeated in the 2019 election, as the party’s Rep flagbearer.
Saubana, as the Ibarapa-born lawmaker is popularly known, has never hid his dissatisfaction with the governor. As he is very close to the leadership of APC in the green chambers, there have been calls on him to join the ruling party.
“Stylishly, Governor Seyi Makinde didn’t want him to go. He appealed to him, through proxy. The lawmaker wasn’t ready to work with him,” a source close to ranking lawmaker said though a text message, Oyo Insight reported on Saturday.
“He’s been assured of a return ticket. Everything has been finalized. He will lead his teeming followers to the APC in his Igboora hometown any moment from now. He will now work with people like Dr. Olusola Ayandele, Hon. Demola Ojo and host of others.”
In a his swift reaction to the report, APC members who have taken forms to seek the ticket of their beloved party to contest for as Member of the House of Representatives in the Ibarapa Central/North Federal Constituency are saying that Muraina cannot be saying the truth and that if his claim about some APC leaders in National Assembly are assuring him of ticket that should ordinarily be picked by any of the party’s loyalists that have been there for it through hard times, then, leadership of the party must look at it if failure recorded by APC in Oyo State in 2019 is not expected to repeat itself in 2023.
Among the complainants was Hon. Lateef Olawumi, who could not make it as APC candidate for the Rep office in 2019 but pacified among others by President Muhammadu Buhari at a forum held with them in the Villa.
According to Olawumi, “It is sad and disappointing that some acclaimed APC leaders in the National Assembly would be assuring Ajibola Muraina, who has been Rep for the past 12 years, three terms, particularly now a PDP lawmaker, that he should leave PDP and come and take ticket that committed APC members have already prepared for.
“This was one of the reasons APC both Presidential and governorship, as well as virtually all National Assembly seats in Oyo State in 2019. I do not expect that as a party, we have not learned our lessons. President Muhammadu Buhari, APC National Chairman Senator Abdullahi Adamu and other party leaders in Abuja, zone and state level should wade into this problem before it costs us another era of success in Oyo State,” Hon. Lateef Olawumi said.
