Osun Election: Aregbesola-backed APC faction protest, call for restructuring

Some factional members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun, known as ‘The Osun Progressive’ (TOP), on Tuesday, held a protest in Osogbo, calling for restructuring of the party.

TOP is the faction of the APC in the state loyal to former governor Rauf Aregbesola, the Minister of Interior.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the placard-carrying party members called for the restructuring of APC in the state following the party’s defeat in the July 16 governorship election.

The party members carried various placards with inscriptions like: “Osun APC Needs Restructuring, Famodun Must Go; Save Osun APC from Total Collapse, Aregbesola is the Soul of APC/Progressive Politics in Osun, among others.

The protesting APC members also called for the sacking of the state party chairman, Gboyega Famodun.

The members, who marched through Odi-Olowo, Olaiya, Ogo-Oluwa protected by armed security operatives, finally made their way to the Osun House of Assembly where they delivered a letter to the Speaker, Timothy Owoeye.

Addressing journalists, the factional youth leader, Abosede Oluwaseun, said the party needed to be restructured from unit, ward, local government and state levels for it to be united and formidable ahead of the coming general elections.

“With conscious, sincere and objective analysis of the outcome of the governorship election, we discovered that the electoral loss is not only self-induced by the party’s administrators, it also reflects party issues which had been raised by concerned minds in the recent past.

“The issues, to summarise them, boil down on glaring mismanagement of the party by Gov. Gboyega Oyetola and the party chairman, Gboyega Famodun.

“The chairman has totally demonstrated lack of capacity to manage the party and this reflects in the result of the July 16 governorship election.

“As a chairman of a ruling party going for election, Famodun didn’t consider it essential to resolve disputes and crises that dotted all the local governments in the state.

“Before the governorship election and till now, there is no understanding, cooperation, unity and cohesion in the party,” she said.

Mr Oluwaseun said that their demand included dissolution of the party executive at all levels in the state and setting up of an independent caretaker committee to oversee the restructuring of the party among others.

Mr Owoeye, who addressed the protesters, assured them that necessary steps would be taken to make sure the party is united and formidable.

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In his own reaction to the protest, the APC Chairman in Osun, Gboyega Famodun, condemned the protest, describing it as shameful, callous and wicked.

A statement by his Media Adviser, Kola Olabisi, said the protest was misplaced and inconsiderate.

Mr Famodun alleged that the APC factional members had worked against the success of Governor Oyetola at the polls.

“Assuming but not conceding that there are challenges within the party, the protesters should be told that they lack moral right to either suggest or effect any likely solution as it is on record that they massively and collectively worked against Gov. Oyetola, the APC governorship candidate, in the just-concluded election in line with the series of their threat.

“One would have thought that the appropriate place for them to canvass for the restructuring of any party is Senator Ademola Adeleke’s Ede country home, whom they voted for with flaunted pride,” he said.

(NAN)