The TOP chairman, Rev Adelowo Adebiyi has described the attack on APC members by some unscrupulous persons in the governor Oyetola Gboyega led-administration as an attempt to preclude the group from obtaining form for their aspirants into various ward positions.
This was contained in a press statement signed by the Chairman, Elder Adebiyi Adelowo.
The statement read:
“I recall that The Osun Progressives was born as a child of necessity; as a result of the ineptitude of the outgoing state executives in the management of party affairs. Expectedly, reactions to the birth of TOP were vehement by today’s men of power. They felt challenged and became irrational towards TOP. The essence of TOP has been the need to reposition Osun APC and strengthen it for future successes as we have kept stressing since. However, like most situations when truth gets bitter than bitter-kola, the outgoing executive members of the APC in the state and their acolytes in government attributed wrong motives to what the TOP stands for, saying it was formed to undo Governor Gboyega Oyetola’s second term bid. It a well known fact, that a weak party cannot be the expected vehicle to bring about being in government. That the Osun APC is very weak today is an undisputable fact which cannot be denied by even the most biased analysts. As at today, Osun APC state executives have not sat to a meeting for once in the last three years or so. No issue affecting the party and its members have been discussed anywhere since the said time. All misunderstandings in the local government branches have been left unattended to and indeed festered to become crisis. Not one of the 30 local governments, plus Area Office is free of crisis. The party Chairman, Prince Gboyega Famodun rarely visits the party Secretariat as he prefers holding court in his palatial Famson residence. He rather prefers to behold to his Lord and master at Okefia Government House to pick crumbs of available things than seat in his well furnished office at the party Secretariat. By these actions, he got cheaply bought over by the Governor’s group, IleriOluwa and ceded all powers and responsibilities of the party to the Governor and his IleriOluwa group. The principle of exclusion has become the policy of the Oyetola’s administration. The case is even worst, if it has anything to do with the personality of the former Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, former Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Moshood Olalekan Adeoti and former Speaker, Rt. Hon. Dr. Najeem Salaam whom Governor Oyetola considers as his mortal enemies and treated them as such. With this kind of situation, the Osun APC seem irrevocably polarised, rudderless and without no known purpose. There are too many flaws of the weak Osun APC and a misguided government which remains unavailable and unapproachable to members.”
“It is thus on that score that the battle for the resuscitation of the Osun APC became a task that must be done but which the few elements in power felt threatened about.”
“After the TOP made its first outing to Aregbesola who reasonably declared support for the objectives that propelled formation of the caucus, verbal attacks by the outgoing APC Chairman and some enfant terrible of the government followed. Famodun, you will recall, called TOP members many unprintable names. The Commissioner for Works and Transports, Remi Omowaye publicly canvassed for the beaten of TOP members anywhere they are found. The so called Elders Forum excommunicated Reverend Lowo Adebiyi who had been a former Chairman of the Action Congress, Action Congress of Nigeria, both precursors of All Progressives Congress, APC. Adebiyi, the man the so called elders forum suspended is on record to be the one that led us to a landslide electoral success in 2014. His humane handling of party matters and the enigmatic personality of Ogbeni Aregbesola made that feat possible as against an unpopular character.”
“Notwithstanding the bare face anger that greeted TOP’s emergence, we stayed focused and true to the need to have a renewed Osun APC. As we were about strategizing on how to get our mission done, the National Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, in furtherance of the fulfillment of its mandate, scheduled registration of new members, revalidation of old members and hold Congress into the wards, local governments, states and the national convention in the ultimate. We saw opportunity in these schedules and went to work in pursuit of success. A number of things happened along the way.”
“The Oyetola government atrociously tried to preclude us from obtaining forms for our aspirants into various ward positions but we got it. The form selling team from Abuja was kept away from contacting any party member in the state. They succeeded in keeping them but failed to achieve desired result in that regard. We used other legal means possible to obtain forms directly from the National Secretariat with individual tellers. They procured malleable fellows for the Ward Congress Committee who made the execution of their exclusion policy easy. The Chairman of the Committee, Hon Gbenga Elegbele said he and his members inevitably arrived Osogbo late. They went straight to the Government House where they held an IleriOluwa stakeholders meeting, leaving out all other stakeholders in the party. The IleriOluwa stakeholders declared that they were adopting consensus as proposed “where possible” by the National Secretariat. The purchased man from Abuja did not bother to check about the forms sold from Abuja and went ahead to ape the IleriOluwa stakeholders that consensus would be used. If he was not procured to do dirty job, would he not know that consensus is impossible where two forms were obtained for a position? Elegbeleye and cohorts lied to cover the obvious holes in his trajectory in carrying out the shady job he did for the Governor and his group IleriOluwa. On the day of the congress, he visited just four Ward Collation centres (in Iragbiji, Ila, Igbajo and Ife). When those who procured him to do evil found out that it was not right that Elegbeleye would go back without touching the party Secretariat, they arranged a structured press conference for him following day, Sunday. Hoodlums loyal to Governor Oyetola were drafted to the premises of the Secretariat to prevent genuine member of the party from attending the staged press conference. In just about five minutes, Elegbeleye was done with his rambling, not saying anything other than what is expected of a compromised person. He did not entertain any question from journalists. Our members were not bought with his lies and thus they started preparing for the appeal where they hoped to get justice.”
“You will discover that so far, for the Governor and his team, it has been from one failure to the other in the process and procedures. The Waterloo was on the congress day when massive turnout was in favour of The Osun Progressives who wanted elections of ward leaders by party members and the scanty members who were forced, for one pecuniary reason or the other, to line up behind the lies they called consensus.”
“We have gone to this length to show that the Governor and his team have gone far too deep in their game of exclusion and impunity and which certainly cannot end the way they wanted it. And that is why they have resorted to violence. Chief Bisi Akande, our leader had always insisted that whenever a man fails to have genuine case, they resort to violence. We dare say that the Governor and his group and thus choose violence and impunity to either get their way forcefully or get us emasculated.”
“We saw this coming and we had taking the right path of law and order. While the Osun Progressives was rising and getting popular, Governor Oyetola and his group’s popularity were nose-diving. That is the path that led to attacks on party members of the Osun Progressives who had thronged the party Secretariat to present their appeal to the committee.”
“The sheer number of members who were there was intimidating and would drive any rival mad. Hoodlums with Oyetola 4+4 face caps were drafted to the secretariat to dislodge the party members who had been calmly going before the Appeal Committee to present their cases. The resolute members resisted the invasion and walked the thugs out. The thugs yielded to awesome number and left in shame. The sitting was going on smoothly and everybody thought reason had prevailed and the worst was over. But then, there was this comic relief on the social media where a Commissioner in the Oyetola’s cabinet posted a scam of a material alleging the Chairman of TOP of bringing thugs to attack the committee members. The picture that the female commissioner put to illustrate her lies showed a person holding Governor Oyetola’s identity cap and you wonder how possible that the person carrying the Governor’s support cap is a member of the committee? On enquiry, the man was in protection of one of the senior thugs when he hits his head against the gate.”
“Not quite long after, former Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Sunday Akere, came into the premises claiming he had a petition to defend. Akere went in to sit with the panel and never leave until he was challenged after creating some scenes. Not quite long after, the thugs who had returned in multiple numbers, forced their way into the premises of the party Secretariat and started massive attacks on the people. The thugs with orange colour face cap with inscription of ‘Oyetola 4+4’, were so entrenched in impunity. Some of them had their faces covered with hood.”
“It is necessary to note that while the attack which was kicked off with gunshots by one of the hooded thugs was on, the security men could not do anything. While thugs had a field day shooting sporadically and inflicting injuries on the party members, the best the security was doing was to rescue the few they could get to. Obviously, the thugs outnumbered the security and this called to question the decision of the security heads to put scanty number of men in situation like this. We concede to the security chiefs the expertise to do what they considered the best in any situation but we note that the security could have been a bit tighter than it was when we have had cause to report attempted attacks and assassinations on the Osun Progressives leaders before now. We note peculiarly that once the security men were able to lead the committee members out of the Secretariat, every other party men was left to the mercy of the thugs.”
“In pursuit of the viciousness of the government and party officials, they have commenced in earnest, the attack and assassination attempt we reported. After the Osogbo party Secretariat, they made way to Ile Ife home of Hon. Biyi Odunlade. He was lucky to have left home few minutes before the arrival of the hired political thugs. Otherwise, only God could say what would have become of him, taking into consideration the multiple dangerous weapons they stormed his abode with. His wife, children and grandchildren were met at home and had to resort to various ways of escapes, leaving trails of injuries and massive destruction to the house. Mrs Odunlade had her groceries shop attached to the house looted and every other things destroyed.This is certainly a beginning of the fulfillment of our reported attacks and assassinations by the government’s men.”
“We note that except the 2000/2003 crisis precipitated by a subordinate against his principal in pursuit of faulting ambition, a progressive government in this clime has never had it so bad. A progressive government ran for eight years without a cry. At least, the government did not exclude any party member from what they deserved, it did not use naked power on members as this government is doing and it did not get things done by exposition of impunity. It is surprising that the Oyetola administration has find it easier to make enemies within his own party while the opposition is left to its own devices. While the opposition party is working hard to win the 2022 election, the Oyetola’s government is busy excluding his co-party members, disuniting his party and making them to regret ever considering him as candidate in the first place and going ahead to make him win election at all cost. Governor Oyetola seems interested in winning second term ticket at all cost and not minding whatever that follows. Well, we live to see the way things go.”
“This is even as we at the TOP are determined to pursue this case to its logical conclusion through all known legal and socially rightful means, no matter what Governor Oyetola and his group are doing. We are convinced of the fact that impunity has an end. It does not have the capacity to live forever. In any case, we all will not leave here alive.”
“It is on this note that we call on the security chiefs at all levels and of whatever category in the country to prevent bloodshed of the innocent by the evil men who, for selfish reasons want to attack and assassinate our members. We also call on all authorities, especially the Federal Government to see to our cry to preventing bloodshed as been planned by the people in government.”
“We are calling on the National Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, who is supervising this exercise to take extraordinary interest in Osun matter, where the minority wants to Lord itself over the majority, where naked power is being used to destroy APC and stop all attempts to redeem it, where an APC government is using thugs to beat up and injure its party members and carrying out many more heinous crimes against APC members. This ward Congress matter must be a saving grace for the huge negative position the Oyetola government has put it.The National Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee must toe the path of honour and be that wise Daniel that has come to judgement in the obvious vicious impunity that the Oyetola people has committed and which is gradually eclipsing the Osun APC horizons. We hope to get the best out of our appeal. God bless APC. God bless Osun. God bless Nigeria. God bless the Progressives government, owners of good governance.”