A political pressure group, Oyo Progressive Front (OPF), has told the 2023 governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Teslim Folarin, to stop his lamentation that his loss was due to arrangement to ensure the victory of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, noting that he was the architect of his misfortune.

Seyi Makinde of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) polled 563,756 votes to defeat Folarin, who scored 256,685 votes in the Mach 18, governorship polls.

The group stated this while reacting to a statement credited to Folarin where he said he lost the election due to what he termed a “political arrangement” for the APC to win the presidential poll for President Bola Tinubu.

The State Coordinator of the group, Mr Tunde Lawal, in a statement made available to journalists in Ibadan, said Senator Folarin was the architect of his misfortune and the misfortune of the APC in Oyo State.

“He should keep quiet and stop his tale of woe that he brought on the Progressives family in the State”, the group said, adding Folarin should tender an unreserved apology to members and leaders of APC in the State and at the national level.

“Due to his inordinate ambition and his grab-all politics, he caused a major upheaval in the party. After grabbing the party structure, he followed up with the governorship ticket of the party. After which he started rolling out party tickets to his acolytes and sold the remaining tickets to ready-made buyers.

“While no one begrudged his ambition, he forgot that a tree does not make a forest. He neglected and ignored all other stakeholders in order to satisfy his ambition, which is what led to his misfortune. The majority of the APC members in the State had migrated to other parties due to the injustice.

“So how did he think he could win the governorship election? In any case, there was a week interval between the Presidential election and the governorship election, so his loss had nothing to do with the presidential election,” it added.

The group also noted that President Tinubu who was the party presidential candidate in the election had seen the situation and knew Senator Folarin could not win and had advised him to move around to reconcile with aggrieved members.

“But he did not heed the advice. He was not ready to concede to any other person in the party despite the advice for him to do so.” Folarin’s past records were another reason he lost the election. It was clear to everyone in Oyo State that his personality was unsellable.

“The people of Oyo State made the right choice by choosing the incumbent over a man of questionable character.

“We, therefore, want to advise him to stop his lamentation and retrace his steps by begging those in the party he had offended. For him to claim that the presidential ambition of President Tinubu led to his loss is not facing reality.

“No one threw him under the bus, he willingly walked into the path of an oncoming vehicle”, the group said. (New Telegraph)

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