The gulf between Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and the interior Minister, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola seems to be getting widened as factions of the All Progressive Congress(APC) may on Saturday goes for a parallel Congress.
One faction that is loyal to Aregbesola has alleged that the State Governor has refused to ensure a fair play in the planning of the Saturday Congress.
Honourable Salinsile, the caretaker Secretary of APC in the State, alleged that the nomination forms from the national secretariat have been hijacked by the group loyal to Governor Oyetola, therefore, his own caucus is ready to have their parallel congress.
Salinsile, who belongs to a different caucus, The Osun Progressive(TOP) loyal to Aregbesola, alleged that the Governor’s group-‘’Ileri Oluwa’’ took the congress committee to the government house to deny other members of the party the nomination form. He disclosed that the ’TOP’, eventually obtained a form from Abuja and will go ahead with the congress on Saturday.
According to Salinsile, ’’we didn’t sit anywhere to decide on the mode of the election out of the three options that we have in electing officers: Consensus, direct and indirect primary, in a situation where you are going for consensus, the constitution of the party clearly stated that all stakeholders must have to agree, not one must be left out’’.’’ If one disagrees, you must look for another option. In this instance as the State Secretary of the party, I was not carried along’’.
Salinsile said, ‘’I learnt that nomination form arrived on Sunday, but up till now, I have not seen a copy. Reliable rumours had it that it was in the Governor’s house. The form ought to have been delivered at the secretariat in my custody; as the party scribe, I should sign for its delivery, but I didn’t see it.’’.
The party Scribe in Osun goes further, ’’they are even threatening not to give the form to anyone apart from members of ‘’ Ileri Oluwa ‘’but we shall meet on Saturday. We got pour forms from Abuja. We paid to the national secretariat and got the form there. He, therefore, says, ‘’ we will wait for them till Saturday and if they decided to go ahead with the congress without us, we will hold our congress which will adopt direct primary and allow the national leadership to decide which group is wrong, Salinsile stated.
However, the Commissioner for political affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, Honourable Taiwo Akeju, debunked the allegation, that Oyetola has hijacked the ward congress nomination forms.
According to Honourable Akeju, ‘’government house is not party secretariat. The congress members are around. The forms are available in the designated areas. The party members know where to obtain the forms. Sanisile Should not mislead our members’’.
Meanwhile, the ‘’Opomulero group’’, has appealed to the aggrieved members to sheath their swords and join the party to ensure the successful conduct of the congress.
Source- Blueprint