Aregbesola, Osun APC Caretaker Chair, Disagree Over Party Management

Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and Osun All Progressives Congress caretaker chairman, Prince Gboyega Famodun have disagreed over party affairs management.

A statement issued by Chairman, The Osun Progressives (TOP), Elder Adelowo Adebiyi a former Chairman of ACN in the state disclosed that Aregbesola while playing host to members of the group at his Lagos residents declared support for the group’s effort at redirecting the party to succeed and endear it to the masses heart.

The immediate past Osun Governor said the group’s move towards promotion of internal democracy, effective and efficient party management, remobilisation, reconciliation and networking the party for development is worthy of support.

He expressed readiness to work with anyone who will not allow the APC, to go the perilous path the AD went in its time, as he accepts his welcome setting of Board of Trustees, comprising himself, former House of Representatives Deputy Speaker, Hon Lasun Yussuff, Moshood Adeoti, former speaker Najeem Salaam among others.

“Your objectives are noble, selfless and timely for the survival of our party. It is worth the support of a genuine progressive politician. Count me in, I will support your efforts”, he said.

The minister recalled with nostalgia the state of inertia of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in 2003 and the strenuous efforts it took in revamping, re-energize and re-awake it to become an election winner in 2007, noted that such experience should not be a lot of APC, a successor to the AD in the Progressives political camp.

However, Famodun while reacting, said the management of party activities is not vested in a pressure group which is not recognised by the party’s constitution, adding that if the group has any idea that could be of benefits to the party, it should be a channel through appropriate constituted authority.

“The Constitution of the party doesn’t recognise any splinter group within the entity called APC in this country. The man that signed the statement is a leader of the party, there is no role for the former acting chairman in the management of the party. As a leader of the party if you believe in a course there are organs of the party through which such grievances could be channelled, but when you go outside all those structures or you don’t believe in those structures again then don’t consider yourself as a member of the party anymore. You can not rebel against a constituted authority within the party”, he said.

Similarly, former House of Representatives, Deputy Speaker, Lasun Yussuff in a statement by his aide, Professor Aderemi Ajala, distanced himself from the BoT of the group, saying he does not belong to the same political bloc as the Minister.

The statement reads, “It was a rude shock to read a via social media report that came out on Saturday 15th of May 2021, that Rt. Hon. Lasun Yussuff who is a former Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives is a member of the Board of Trustees (BOT) of a newly formed factional group in Osun All Progressives Congress (APC) known as The Osun Progressives (TOP), where Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the former Governor of Osun state and presently the Minister of Interior, is the chairman of the group’s BOT.

“While distancing Rt. Hon. Lasun Yussuff from TOP, it is noted that over the years since Lasun was elected as the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives till present, virtually all the members of TOP including the ex-Governor Rauf Aregbesola have politically dissociated from him”.