The governor of Oyo state, ‘Seyi Makinde, has indicated readiness to begin refund to all PDP aspirants who obtained nomination forms during the last party’s primary election.
The governor also promised to start releasing N10 million to the 33 local governments in the state, beginning from the end of this month.
The information was revealed on Tuesday at an event hosted by the Oyo State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, in collaboration with Seyi Makinde Governorship Campaign Council (Omituntun 2.0) in Oyo town.
Recall that the party in the state announced on Monday that its leadership, working with the State Gubernatorial Campaign Council, would hold town hall meetings with His Excellency, Governor Seyi Makinde in each of the state’s seven geopolitical zones to kick off the campaigns.
The Zonal Meeting, which will begin today in Oyo Zone, is expected to conclude on December 17, 2022, in Ibadan.
The purpose of the gathering, according to Makinde, is to resolve differences among party stakeholders before the 2023 general elections.
He emphasized that the meeting would be a way to address all internal issues and that leaders are ready to listen, maintaining that, as a leader, they are inevitably going to make mistakes.
“We may have the challenges since we are immortal, but I can guarantee you that we are willing to hear what you have to say.
“Currently, I am a governor under PDP, and I won’t allow the well to be polluted. And those who have not yet reaped the benefits of PDP should have patience because their time will come,” the governor said.
Makinde urged the members to make good use of the opportunity they have now, noting that the party suffered in 2011 when it faced problems such that it didn’t have house of assembly member let alone president.
According to him, this process of engagement will continue for issues to be addressed.
However, in response to some issues being raised, Makinde stated that he will start releasing N10m to all local government chairmen and will, as promised, refund all party aspirants who picked up the nomination form during the party primaries.
He explained that candidates for the House of Assembly would receive N600,000 while candidates for the House of Representatives would receive a N2.5m refund right away.
The governor, who also addressed the issue of underfunding in 33 local governments, said that the day he took office was the day he dissolved previous local government chairmen, but he had to take the bullet that his party members must be cared for in all 33 local governments, regardless of the circumstances.
He noted that his administration took the decision of N10m across the 33 LG because it had a buffer, saying that not all states could do that given the economic reality. However, in the long run, he had to stop it because some people were abusing the opportunity, and he promised that by month’s end, local government chairmen would begin receiving it back.
Makinde said: “Like I mentioned, how can we find a solution if an incident occurs without a buffer? You could see that we were able to respond quickly when the problem with the Akesan market arose because of buffer.
“One thing that we need to ask our chairmen is, what’s happening to their IGR in each local government. I need to let you know that allocation coming in might be dried off one day, but we need to focus.”
The governor also revealed that each coordinator on his team will receive a branded bus to use throughout the campaign, which would later be returned to the party after the election.
