Osun APC quakes as Aregbesola’s loyalists, Oyetola square up

For many keen followers of events in the build-up to the last All Progressives Congress ward Congress in Osun State, the eventual bust-up after the exercise, between the supporters of the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, and those of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola would not have come as a surprise.

Since after the conclusion of the congress, neither the Oyetola’s camp, called Ilerioluwa Group, nor that of Aregbesola, known as The Osun Progressives, had given peace a chance.

Before the last ward congress, Aregbesola’s loyalists had come up with a barrage of reasons to support their belief that the exercise would not be free. They blamed the state caretaker chairman of the party, Prince Gboyega Famoodun, for running its affairs without the input of other members of its executive.

As the day of the congress drew closer, the first major complaint raised by the Aregbesola camp was that forms for positions up for contest were being kept in the Osun State Government House.

But members of TOP still managed to get the forms by buying directly from the APC national secretariat. The advice by the national leadership of the APC to the state chapters that consensus arrangements should be adopted in lieu of election, however became the Hercules heels for the Osun chapter, as Aregbesola’s men insisted on contest.

A day to the congress, curiously, none of the known allies of ex-governor Aregbesola, attended the APC stakeholders’ meeting held at the Osun Government House in Osogbo, where the leadership of the party told the Gbenga Elegbeleye-led Congress Committee that the state would align with the suggestion of the national body and adopt consensus candidates across all wards in the state.

But on the day of the congress, in some wards across the state, members of TOP put up a strong resistance to the consensus arrangement, leading to the disruption of the exercise. In some other wards, the group elected parallel ward executives.

Notwithstanding that, Elegbeleye, while speaking to journalists on the day of the congress, said the exercise had been largely successful in all the local government areas he visited in company with members of the committee. He went ahead to declare only those the committee had screened and that stood for election, as the eventual winners.

Rather than bringing the tension down, the announcement by the congress committee, subsequently opened a fresh vista for crises, with the battle shifted to the Appeal Committee for the hearing of petitions arising from the congress.

On Saturday, August 14, 2021, the day the Ambassador Obed Wadzani-led Osun APC Ward Congress Appeal’s Committee was to commence sitting,  members of Agbesola-backed TOP bombarded the state secretariat of the party in their numbers, armed with more petitions in addition to the 32 initially addressed to the committee.

Apparently, in reaction to the news that many Aregbesola’s loyalists had stormed the party secretariat, members of Oyetola’s Ileri Oluwa group, decked in their orange colour cap with the large inscription ‘Oyetola 4+4, also started mobilising. Before long, they gathered a sizeable number of the members and stormed the premises of the party’s state office.

With rising tempers and exchange of harsh words, the presence of the two contending groups struggling for the control of the artery of the APC in Osun State would soon aggravate tension, snowballing into physical combat at the venue of the committee sitting. In the mayhem, one person, identified as Muideen Ajetumobi from Osogbo Local Government Area, was wounded.

Undeterred, however, the committee, in spite of the initial unrest, still proceeded with the sitting and attended to petitions submitted. The sitting went on till around 4pm, when suspected hoodlums invaded the secretariat and chased away everyone found on the premises.

As expected, Aregbesola and Oyetola’s groups traded blame over the attack. The confrontation created an atmosphere of uncertainty. The crack in the Osun APC is coming less than a year to another governorship election in the state and there are growing concerns this may affect the chances of the ruling party in the upcoming election.

Before the crises got this messy, Aregbesola’s men had demanded the removal of the current Caretaker Chairman, Famoodun, on the account of his alleged lacked management capacity to hold the party together.

But the Oyetola group said after reviewing the demand for Famoodun’s removal, they found it was a ploy to truncate Famoodun’s chairmanship position to pave the way for the emergence of Rasaq Salinsile, as his replacement.

It was gathered both groups had planned to use the last ward congress in the state to lay foundation for efforts that would culminate in the emergence of their preferred candidate as chairman of the party in the state. The position of the chairman is considered strategic to the emergence of the APC candidate for the next governorship poll.

While some stakeholders believe the only way out of the crisis is genuine reconciliation of the two groups, investigations by the Saturday PUNCH revealed that many of the loyalists fighting the battle on behalf of the Interior Minister have personal axe to grind with the incumbent governor.

For instance, the immediate-past Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in the state, Chief Kolapo Alimi, it was learnt had been primed by Aregbesola to serve as the Attorney General in the current Oyetola’s administration.

Having served throughout the period Aregbesola held away in the state, holding a key ministry, Alimi, a lawyer, was among the ‘poster boys’ of the Aregbesola’s government and he reportedly worked diligently alongside others to ensure victory for Oyetola in the keenly-contested September 22, 2018 governorship poll, as well as the run-off election held on September 27, 2018.

In recognition of the gesture, Alimi, it was learnt, had been penciled down as the next Attorney General of the state. But when the list of nominees for Oyetola’s cabinet was unveiled, Alimi was among missing Aregbesola’s loyalists.

Shedding light on why many ex-commissioners that served in Aregbesola’s cabinet were not considered for reappointment by Oyetola, even though their contributions were not less valued, a very reliable source close to government, who pleaded for anonymity, said there was an agreement that anyone that had served without interruption in the immediate-past administration should not be considered for appointment as commissioner in the new cabinet.

“The reality is that Alimi is in that category. He served as commissioner throughout the period that Aregbesola was in office as governor. Unknown to Alimi and others who are now displeased, the former governor knew about the arrangement that those that served all through the period he was in office should not be reappointed into the new cabinet as commissioner,” the source said.

Also believed to be displeased with Oyetola among the Aregbesola’s core loyalists is the immediate-past speaker of the House of Assembly, Dr Najeem Salam. He was said to have been penciled down for the post of Secretary to the State Government, even while yet serving as Speaker.

Upon completing his tenure in the Assembly, Salam was not given the post of Secretary to the State Government, as expected, and the current SSG, Prince Wole Oyebamiji, kept his seat in the cabinet, until Salam was appointed into the Nigerian Communication Satellite Ltd as Executive Director, Marketing and Business Development.

Although some party sources were of the opinion that Salam got the Abuja job through the influence of Oyetola, many loyalists of the Interior Minister said it was Aregbesola that rewarded him after he failed to get appointment as SSG.

Also, the Secretary of The Osun Progressives, Lani Baderinwa, who served as Commissioner for Information, who some had  believed would make the list when the new cabinet was being formed, did not make it, and his membership of Aregbesola political group was said to be linked to his complete disappointment over failure to make Oyetola’s cabinet.

Besides the alleged sidelining of all identified allies of ex-governor, in terms of appointment, it was also learnt that Oyetola’s refusal to pay severance package of members of last cabinet approved for them by Aregbesola few hours before he handed over power, was part of the reasons they were displeased with the incumbent governor.

But Alimi, in a chat with our correspondent, said lack of patronage was not the reason behind their opposition to the style of administration of the incumbent governor. He insisted that those in TOP decided to support Aregbesola because his successor had planned to rubbish him.

Asked for the exact cause of disagreement between loyalists of ex-governor Aregbesola and the supporters of the incumbent governor, Alimi said, “If you can talk on issues and you can address the issue as it is, you immediately become enemy of the present government.

“Some months ago, some people just influenced those in my ward to say they had suspended me without any allegations. Later, in their own wisdom, they reviewed it and they discovered that maybe they had not done it properly and then, they reversed the suspension.

“They did that one to me, when ordinarily no one among those involved in the plot could put in half of what I did to make sure that this government came to be. We did not worry, we still said, ‘Okay, we have our own conscience if patronage is the issue, keep it.’ But we will not allow Oyetola to continue to rubbish Aregbesola.”

Speaking further on how Oyetola had allegedly rubbished his predecessor, the ex-commissioner, who currently serves as the Legal Adviser of TOP, posited,  “If Aregbesola is so bad like the picture they are now painting, why would you Gov Goyega Oyetola stay for eight years under him (as Chief of Staff)? And now, you took all the benefits, you still use the position to enhance, to get to the current one. If he (Oyetola) was not appointed Chief of Staff, do you think he will come from nowhere to become governor here?

“The reality is that, the moment you can now talk, you become their enemy. From the report available to some of us, the alarm we raised recently was real and we needed to cry out so that people will know that this is assuming a dangerous dimension.”

Alimi, while speaking further, accused Oyetola of dividing the party, even as he refused to commit to the second term project of the governor.

But Alimi, in a chat with our correspondent, said lack of patronage was not the reason behind their opposition to the style of administration of the incumbent governor. He insisted that those in TOP decided to support Aregbesola because his successor had planned to rubbish him.

Asked for the exact cause of disagreement between loyalists of ex-governor Aregbesola and the supporters of the incumbent governor, Alimi said, “If you can talk on issues and you can address the issue as it is, you immediately become enemy of the present government.

“Some months ago, some people just influenced those in my ward to say they had suspended me without any allegations. Later, in their own wisdom, they reviewed it and they discovered that maybe they had not done it properly and then, they reversed the suspension.

“They did that one to me, when ordinarily no one among those involved in the plot could put in half of what I did to make sure that this government came to be. We did not worry, we still said, ‘Okay, we have our own conscience if patronage is the issue, keep it.’ But we will not allow Oyetola to continue to rubbish Aregbesola.”

Speaking further on how Oyetola had allegedly rubbished his predecessor, the ex-commissioner, who currently serves as the Legal Adviser of TOP, posited,  “If Aregbesola is so bad like the picture they are now painting, why would you Gov Goyega Oyetola stay for eight years under him (as Chief of Staff)? And now, you took all the benefits, you still use the position to enhance, to get to the current one. If he (Oyetola) was not appointed Chief of Staff, do you think he will come from nowhere to become governor here?

“The reality is that, the moment you can now talk, you become their enemy. From the report available to some of us, the alarm we raised recently was real and we needed to cry out so that people will know that this is assuming a dangerous dimension.”

Alimi, while speaking further, accused Oyetola of dividing the party, even as he refused to commit to the second term project of the governor.

“Forget about the noise. You will see by God’s grace, he (Oyetola) will return. He will have the support of all the stakeholders within the party, including Aregbesola.

“I don’t believe we have any serious cause for concern. We are all brothers. All of us are in the same camp, we are family. There may be grievances, but I advise members of TOP to come back to the mainstream, so that we can work together for the unity of the party and for the reelection of Oyetola, who is doing us proud,” Akeju said.

Several party sources had expressed concerns over reported plans by some  individuals to approach court, if the Appeal’s Committee failed to upturn the last APC Ward Congress.

Their fear was predicated on the effect such litigation may have on the emergence of the party’s governorship candidate in next year’s election.

A prominent member of the party, who once held position on the State Working Committee of the APC, feared that “court decision on the Ward Congress must the prevented at all costs. We all remember what happened in Zamfara state between factions of our party. They both lost out.

“But the arraignment of seven members of Aregbesola’s political family in court has not done our reconciliation efforts much favour. We are like starting all over to make our people see reasons why we must not have complete breakdown in our relationship.”

Meanwhile, Oyetola had directed the party chairman, Famoodun, to discontinue the court action against  the chairman of TOP, Lowo Adebiyi; the APC Caretaker Secretary,  Rasaq Salinsile, former Commissioner for Works and Transports, Kazeem Salami; former Commissioner for Youth,  Sports and Special Needs, Biyi Odunlade; former Special Adviser to the Governor on Taxation, Mr Gbenga Akano; two members of the APC in Ilesa, Alaba Popoola and Azeez Adekunle. They were all arraigned for conspiracy and assault before an Osogbo Magistrates’ Court.

But the governor’s step had not pacified members of the group, who had labelled the discontinuation of the trial as mere face-saving.

(Saturday PUNCH)