Oyetola’s group planning suspension of Aregbesola from APC, says loyalist

…allegation illogical, frivolous-Lawal

By Deborah Oladejo, Osogbo

A former factional youth leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State, Abosede Oluwaseun has raised the alarm over alleged plot to suspend the immediate past Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola from the party in the state.

He alleged that five stakeholders of the party are orchestrating the suspension. 

Oluwaseun, in a statement in Osogbo on Friday, alleged that the plot was being orchestrated by the former governor of the state, Gboyega Oyetola and five of his loyalists, inluding a Senator and former Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly who lost their re-election bids.

Others involved in the grand plot according to him, are former commissioners for works and transport and local government and chieftaincy affairs who are said to be the initiators of the suspension idea.

The statement reads: “We have it on high authority that the Ilesa Ward 8 executives of the APC, which is Aregbesola’s ward, were manipulated yesterday (Wednesday) to sign a blank sheet of paper on the false pretence that the APC state leadership wanted to get their commitment to the progress of the party. 

“We are also reliably informed that a huge amount of money was given to the ward executives few hours ago by an emissary sent by Oyetola and other conspirators.

“We note that having failed in the various attempts to blackmail Aregbesola, Oyetola and others resulted to unjustly suspend Aregbesola to stall the reconciliation between him and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“We want to state it clear that any attempt to suspend Aregbesola will backfire.” 

But the leadership of the APC in the state in a swift reaction,  accused those peddling the information as being afraid of their shadows and guilty of attention seeking.

The state Chairman of the party, Sooko Tajudeen Lawal, in a statement issued by the Director of Media and Information, Chief Kola Olabisi, in Osogbo, stated that the spurious and frivolous allegation  of plans by some people to suspend Aregbesola does not add up and it is grossly illogical which could only be taken hook, line and sinker by a demented person.

Lawal explained that the question that  should be running riot in the subconscious of any right-thinking member of the society is if the said former minister is still genuinely qualified to be called a member of the APC in Osun State and elsewhere in Nigeria having expressly fulfilled all the conditions to tag him as having technically left the party for many years.

He stated that it is no longer news that Aregbesola and his co-travellers through The Osun Progressives (TOP) have been consistently working against the interest of the APC and its candidates in Osun State.

Lawal recalled how the ex-minister had refused to participate in the national convention of the party in Abuja and how he did not also attend the presidential election primary of the party that produced Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the candidate of the party then.

Lawal also stated that it is on record that Aregbesola and members of his TOP of which he was its patron turned themselves into an opposition within the Osun APC where they were hurling insults and criticising Oyetola’s government at their every Thursday meetings at the Oranmiyan House which is the campaign office of Aregbesola in Osogbo.

The chairman also recalled that apart from the fact that Aregbesola never voted during the last presidential, National Assembly and governorship elections, he also did not campaign for any APC candidates during the series of elections that were held in the state last year and this year respectively.

Lawal also disclosed that Aregbesola and his loyalists have been hobnobbing with Senator Ademola Adeleke and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform, to the detriment of all the APC candidates.

Lawal said: “Assuming without conceding that there is a plot in place to effect the formal suspension of Aregbesola, the immediate-past interior minister should justify the potent reasons why himself and his co-travellers are qualified to retain the membership of the party that they have been working against its interest.

“It is apparent that with the suspension allegation, Aregbesola is flying a kite for a devilish plan he has in the offing for the party in Osun State.

“The Osun APC does not need to waste its time on Aregbesola and his co-travellers who had since deliberately suspended themselves from the party by walking out of it and abdicated their statutory responsibilities to the party.

“When last were Aregbesola and his Hallelujah men and women sighted at the ward, local, state, senatorial, state and federal engagements of the party to justify their continuous loyalty and membership of the APC in Osun State?

“One would have thought that the appropriate place for Aregbesola to ventilate his anger is the Ede country home of Governor Adeleke who rewarded two of his loyalists with the commissionership  appointments for helping the APC governorship candidate, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, lose the Osun State election.

“I see Aregbesola’s allegation as being tantamount to a sinner running when no one is chasing him.”