.Osun APC chair chides ex-gov’s group over attack on campaign office
BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
Osun State Governor, Gboyega Oyetola has extended an olive branch to the aggrieved members of the ruling All Progressives Congress noting that the party was open to genuine reconciliation and return of the splinter group, The Osun Progressives (TOP) loyal to his predecessor, Rauf Aregbesola.
Oyetola made the statement while addressing his party’s loyalists who assembled at different locations, during the continuation of his strategic engagement tour to Iwo Federal Constituency after he paid an homage to the palaces of the traditional rulers in the constituency.
Governor Oyetola said the window of genuine reconciliation remained open for genuine members of the party.
He called on the party loyalists to get ready for the February 19 governorship primary of the party by holding firmly and taking the grip of their polling units, wards and councils.
“As our primary approaches, the time has come for us to be more united ever than before. Let us extend hands of fellowship to our members who have shown genuine resolve to return to the party.
“The window of reconciliation is still open to those who are members of the splinter group, to have a rethink and join the mainstream of the party structure. This is where the party is and this is where God resides. It is our belief that with God, success is ours. I am resolute to continue to make you proud,” Oyetola said.
But in what appeared like a contradiction of the peace efforts of Governor Oyetola, the Chairman of the party in the state, Gboyega Famodun, described TOP as a group of losers and a club of rabble rousers, whose main objective was to disrupt the peace of Osun, put the state in bad light and create the impression that all was not well with the APC.
Famodun’s remarks followed allegations by members of TOP that Oyetola and the Osun APC were responsible for the disruption of the group’s meeting and attack on Oranmiyan House, campaign office of Aregbesola last Thursday.
Addressing a press conference at the APC State Secretariat, Ogo-Oluwa, Osogbo, on Tuesday, the party chairman described the allegation as uncouth, ill-mannered, reckless and libelous by “a group of politicians stuck in transit and heading nowhere.”
He said it defied reasoning for anyone to attribute violence to the person and office of the governor, who has proved his interest in building and developing Osun beyond doubts.
“Calling the dog a bad name to hang it is the TOP stock-in-trade. The APC in Osun is one. The Governor is a gentleman who fixes, builds and improves lives. He is not given to frivolities. He has a second address unlike the desperate TOP men who have nothing else to their name except blackmail and deceit.
“Let me also state categorically here that Governor Oyetola has no reason to unleash mayhem on his own state, a state reputed for peace. The party has no reason to disrupt any meeting or deploy trouble-makers. The lines have fallen for us in pleasant places. God is working for us because the governor has a divine mandate.
“It is the little minds of TOP leaders who could not deliver on any of their promises to the people they are leading that are desperate, and desperate men are dangerous men. They could not get their ‘executives’ at any level ratified by the national headquarters. They lost their case in court. They held a ‘primary’ that led to an implosion. Their ‘leading candidates’ are in disarray. The one that could find money to buy form has been isolated by the two who have no money.
“We call on the security agencies to keep an eye on TOP and its desperate men. They are running wild and a rabid dog is a bad dog,” Famodun stated.