BY AKINWALE ABOLUWADE, IBADAN
Isaac Omodewu, former Commissioner for Lands and Housing in Oyo State, has emerged as chairman of the All Progressives Congress in the state following the consensus by the party’s delegates.
Olaide Moshood Abass emerged as the deputy chairman of the party at the congress held at Liberty Stadium, Ibadan.
Other newly elected members are Mojeed Olaoya, Oyo Federal Senatorial Chairman; Joshua Oyebamiji Atiku, Tajudeen Lannipe, State Secretary; Sijuade Adigun, Woman Leader; and Abdul Salam Muhammed Deji, Legal Adviser.
Omodewu, while expressing his gratitude to the party for their support for him, urged the aggrieved members to shelve their grievances and unite for victory in the 2023 elections.
The selection, done in the absence of SENACO and Unity group, was supervised by the APC Congress Committee.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission, Mutiu Agboke, who was at the venue, said that INEC headquarters in Abuja directed that the Congress should hold as scheduled.
Before the congress, key stakeholders in the APC in the state had called for its suspension.
Recall that the congress was postponed twice over allegations by some groups in the party that delegate lists were doctored.
They said that the National Secretariat of the party should reconsider its stand on the state congress alleging that the delegate lists for the exercise was manipulated.
Among the aggrieved stakeholders of the party, who gathered at Premier Hotel, Ibadan, on Saturday to oppose the congress are former Senator Ayo Adeseun, Sunday Dare, Minister of Youths and a Sports Development; Chairman, Nigerian Communication Commission, Prof. Adeolu Akande; Senator Ayoade Adeseun, Senator Olufemi Lanlehin, Chief Niyi Akintola, represented; and Adebayo Adelabu, the APC governorship candidate in Oyo State in 2019.
Adeseun and others, describing the exercise as a sham, said, “We were all prepared for the state Congress until yesterday (Friday) morning when the panel from Abuja came. We have been clamouring for the list of delegates. Some of us went to Abuja to say we couldn’t have a Congress when we didn’t have delegate list. They promised they would do something about it and the list now came yesterday (Friday) and when we opened it, we saw it was just ‘contraband.’
“We are very confident that top leadership of the party are probably not aware of what some people did around their offices. When we put this out and let the world see, we are confident that they would correct the anomalies.”
In the early hour of Saturday, there was heavy security presence at the APC state Secretariat in Ibadan.
