The Presidential ambition of Oyo State Governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde has suffered a fatal blow as the entire leadership structure of his own party, the Allied People’s Movement (APM) in the South-South geopolitical zone has passed a vote of no confidence on him, declaring his ambition dead on arrival.

In a damning communique arising from a strategic meeting of State Chairmen, Governorship candidates and National Assembly candidates of APM in the South-South, the leaders boycotted the South-South Presidential Town Hall meeting and openly disowned the man who claims to be their presidential candidate.

The development has vindicated the position of Oyo State stakeholders who have always maintained that Seyi Makinde is an example of a bad politician who lacks the capacity to manage men. Checks reveal the depth of Makinde’s political failure at home. Known APM leaders like Alhaji Adebisi Olopoeniyan have already severed relationship with him, while litigations are currently in court against the Chairmanship and Councillorship candidates that Makinde foisted on the party against established structures.

“If a man cannot manage his party in Oyo, how can he manage Nigeria?”, said an APM leader in the South-South meeting on Tuesday. The South-South stakeholders are therefore in sync with the reality in Oyo that Seyi Makinde is a man who does not recognize established party structures: “same way he abandoned those who supported him to win the 2019 and 2023 gubernatorial elections in Oyo.”

In the past few weeks, no single day passes without one aide or the other resigning from his sinking cabinet. It has shown that Seyi Makinde who can not manage his own men within that small unit in Oyo, needs not be taken serious about his ambition. It is dead on arrival,” a top Oyo APM stakeholder noted further.

In their resolution made available to newsmen, the South-South APM leaders declared: “We, the State Chairmen of Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in the South-South geopolitical zone have met to deliberate on the state of affairs within our great party and the relationship between the party’s leadership structures and its presidential candidate, His Excellency, Engr. Seyi Makinde.

“We express serious concern over the inadequate recognition, consultation and engagement of the established party hierarchy by Seyi Makinde. We have realized that our presidential candidate, Seyi Makinde lacks substance, the political will and focus to lead us aright. He came to the party with a promise of lies and has been wallowing in an ocean of dishonesty, political compromise and incompetence. If he cannot be honest to his party men, how can he be honest to Nigerians he aspires to lead?

“He came to our party as a political deadwood, having come from a faction of PDP that was dead. Rather than work with established structures in the 36 states that he met on ground, Seyi Makinde has planted coordinators of his presidential campaign in the 36 states from outside our Party, all of whom are not card carrying members of APM. It appears Seyi Makinde came to our Party only to make merchandise of us, whereas APM is not a trading company.”

The leaders affirmed that the APM is an institution governed by its constitution and not an appendage to an individual ambition. “In view of these concerns, we pass a vote of no confidence in the manner in which the presidential candidate, His Excellency, Seyi Makinde has carried on his presidential campaign without recognising established leadership structures in the states.”

The party leaders however passed a vote of confidence on the NWC led by Alhaji Yusuf Mamman Dantalle and on their National Leader, Senator Bala Mohammed, Governor of Bauchi State.

Speaking on this development, Kunle Adedokun, an aide of Makinde’s estranged asssociate, Alhaji Bisi Olopoeniyan said the message from the South-South is clear: Anyone supporting Makinde in his failed presidential bid should learn from history. If leaders and APM Chairmen in the South-South and stakeholders could disown him, who else should take him serious?

“Seyi is a jester and the South-South APM Leaders have just affirmed what has always been said about his personality here in Oyo State,” Adedokun added.