The Oyo State Labour Party (LP) has abandoned its governorship candidate in the state and endorsed Seyi Makinde, the state governor, as its candidate for the March 11 election.

Tawfiq Akinwale is the LP governorship candidate in the state.

The LP chairman in the state, Sadiq Atayese, at a press conference on Sunday affirmed the party’s belief in the candidacy of Makinde as one that would serve the interest of residents.

He said the Oyo LP decided to work with the candidate whose ideology tallies with its own in terms of securing lives and property, infrastructural development, food security, education and human capital development.

“Going by the results of the February 25 presidential election and political realities in our state, it is obvious that no individual party can win the coming gubernatorial election single-handedly,” Atayese said.

He also said, “The main priority should be to ensure that citizens win through the election of a candidate that best serves their collective interests.

“Against this backdrop, the right thing now is for parties and their candidates to form alliances with candidates of like ideology.

“It is of note that the present PDP administration under Governor Makinde has presented its scorecard from the health sector with the provisions of primary healthcare centres in every ward to security and others.

“There is no doubt that his governance ideas in the establishment of park management system which other state now emulate has made him to be a leader with uncommon innovation.

“From our evaluation as a party, Makinde has done well and we know that continuous development of a state is a function of stability in governance.”

Atayese said there had been “meaningful development” in Oyo in the last four years, adding that it is logical that the good work continues.

He said, “We have the responsibility to maintain the nobility of our heritage and we the citizens have to stand by it,” he said.

“We took a thorough assessment of the various governorship candidates for the March 11 election in terms of character, competence, capacity and compassion for the people.

“Governor Makinde excelled over the others, therefore, LP in Oyo state has decided to use its structure throughout the 33 local government areas to support his re-election for another four years of giant development.”

He however directed their supporters to vote for other LP candidates at the state assembly elections.