•Denies collecting money from Makinde
The factional chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Oyo State, Mr Gabriel Folahan has declared that he is in the best capacity to decide the fate of the party in the state, as his faction remains the recognised one.
Speaking on Tuesday, at a press conference at the party secretariat in Oke-Ado, Ibadan, Folahan noted that the High court had earlier issued and extended an order of interim injunction which restrains the other factional chairman, Mr Micheal Okunlade of the party from carrying out party activities and acting in the capacity of a party chairman.
He said: “I personally would dictate the fate of SDP in Oyo State, because if anybody contests under the platform of SDP in Oyo, the primary is faulty; and if your primary is questionable, it means that you cannot emerge in any of the offices under the platform of SDP.”
While explaining the reason behind the extension of the restraining order by the Justice A.L. Akintola court, Folahan noted that the Okunlade led faction of the party had filed a counter-motion to stop the order which the judge found baseless and therefore made him extend the order by seven days which is from May 25th to 2nd June, 2022.
He, however, expressed his concern to the news making round in some quarters about his association with the Oyo State governor, Engr Seyi Makinde, where he is alleged to have collected the sum of N50m from the governor, who is the candidate for the PDP in the 2023 election. He described such insinuations as untrue and misleading.
“I had gotten calls from the stakeholders in Oyo State politics that Seyi Makinde is using me to put SDP in his pocket and that I have received a reasonable amount of money from him. This has been going around among my political friends and enemies.
“I’ve even seen people that I did not expect. A grassroots politician and a senior lawyer in the state even called that I should open up to him on how I collected the sum of 50 million naira from Seyi Makinde, just for me to deliver SDP to him. I made it clear that I’ve been spending on this party since my ascension as the chairman came, and it’s nothing less than 18 million naira cumulatively.”
