The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo State has told Deputy Governor Rauf Olaniyan to resign.
The party said Olaniyan’s resignation becomes necessary since he wilfully abandoned the PDP and the votes that produced him.
Olaniyan announced his defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the weekend.
A statement by the PDP Publicity Secretary, Akeem Olatunji, warned Olaniyan and his new party against stealing the people’s mandate through the backdoor. The party said Olaniyan should not ‘pretend not to know the right thing to do after leaving the platform that sponsored him and Governor Seyi Makinde on the joint ticket if truly he has any atom of the Yoruba omoluabi toga he always ascribed to himself’.
The statement reads: “Oyo people did not vote for a PDP/APC ticket, they voted entirely for a PDP mandate. While Section 40 of the Constitution of Nigeria guarantees freedom of association of any person, the deputy governor ought to be enlightened by the same Constitution which stipulats that the ticket upon which he contested the 2019 governorship election alongside Governor Makinde as a deputy was not an independent candidate ticket.
“It is only when you contest election as an independent candidate and win, and then decide to move to any political party of your choice, that you become the owner of the votes cast by the electorate.
“The Oyo PDP, which is the rightful owner of the mandate, will retrieve it back soon, using every available legal means, if Olaniyan fails to humbly resign as a gentleman. Our position is simple and very clear on this matter and, as a matter of legal implication, the votes in any election in Nigeria are to political parties, not candidates.
“We’re determined and resolved to retrieve the party’s mandate being withheld illegally and unlawfully by Olaniyan because it belongs to the people of Oyo State who handed same to the PDP.”
