Three prominent leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State, today expressed their readiness to work together to rescue the party from what they described as imminent collapse and electoral loss.
Immediate past deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Lasun Yussuff, former Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, Hon Najeem Salam and former Secretary to Osun State Government, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, jointly declared that APC cannot win the 2022 governorship election if it fields the incumbent, Governor Adegboyega Oyetola.
The trio who also contested the ticket of the party with Oyetola in 2018 lamented that the governor has been playing politics of exclusiveness and disunity since he took over.
Speaking at a special meeting of The Osun Progressives TOP, a caucus of the party, Salam said it was disheartening that genuine APC members who worked for the emergence of Oyetola, were being treated as outcast and nonentities by the governor and his people.
According to Salam, Oyetola was mismanaging the party because he is an opportunist, who got the party’s ticket on a platter of gold.
He said Yussuff, Adeoti and himself have resolved to downplay individuals’ political interest, accept and work with whoever emerges among them as the candidate of the party in 2022.
The former Speaker urged party members to work in unison to realise the dreams of the majority in a bid to salvage the party and the state.
Speaking in the same vein, Yussuff, the former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, said it was painful that the APC in the state is in the hands of an impostor, stating that the party is in disarray and needed to be restructured.
Yussuff said he decided to join hands with other leaders of the party in The Osun Progressives because of his love for progressives, his relationship with the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aragbesola and the need to take the party back to the genuine progressives in the state.
According to him, APC ran into problem in 2018 because its leaders refused to allow collective leadership to play out, accusing them of imposing Oyetola on the APC members.
He submitted that this time around, the leaders of the party are ready to embrace collective leadership which will start from presenting a candidate from their camp against Oyetola during the primaries of the party.
In his address, Adeoti, the governorship candidate of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) in 2018, said it was surprising that a governor that won with just 482 votes would be chasing away quality APC members and leaders.
Adeoti said it was hypocritical and unfair for Oyetola to be dissociating himself from policies, programmes and projects of Aregbesola’s administration, disclosing that he was actively involved in every decision of the government as a Chief of Staff to the governor.
The former SSG accused elders of the APC of nonchalant attitude to settlement of misunderstanding in the party before it snowballed into full crisis.
He specifically accused the former Chairman of the party, Prince Gboyega Famodun of being a party to the crisis, saying that the former Chairman of the APC was also not willing to relate with anybody that has relationship with Aregbesola.
Adeoti concluded that the window of reconciliation has been closed, stating that what is needed was to be united to rescue the party from sinking.
All the three governorship aspirants jointly promised to work together, restructure the party and position it for victory in 2022.
The Osun APC Chairman, Hon. Rasaq Salinsile, said it was unfortunate that the party found itself in the current mess, saying that the crisis would have been settled had Oyetola been a genuine progressive and a fair human being.
Salinsile said the party has decided to choose candidate from Osun West Senatorial District in the 2022 governorship election.
The Oranmiyan House on Gbongan/Ibadan road was filled to the brim as members of the APC trooped out to welcome the three politicians.