>
The Accord party in Oyo State was on Saturday thrown into crisis as it held parallel two ward congresses across the state.
The party started showing signs of disharmony preparatory to the last year general elections. Many aspirants left the party shortly before the election as they accused its leader, former governor Rashidi Ladoja, of imposing candidates.
It was thought that today’s congress would return peace to the party but it was not to be.
While a faction is controlled by a group which Hon. Bukola Ajaja is a prominent member, the second faction is loyal to the official party leadership as represented by the State Chairman, Alhaji Bashiru Lawal.
It was learnt that both factions held parallel congresses in most of the local governments in Oke-Ogun, Ogbomoso, Oyo and Ibarapa zones as well as in some local governments in Ibadan.
It was reliably gathered that the factionalization of the party is well known to the National Executive of the party, and that results from both factions were being expected.
But Lawal denied that parallel congresses were held. He said some people were being used to destroy the party.
According to him, the group wrote a letter to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of its intention to hold a congress.
“They wanted to factionalize the party. But we insisted that only party members who attend ward meetings would participate in the election.
“In Saki West for example, the dissidents gathered from the entire local government at a place but did not hold any congress. In ATISBO, there was no gathering. They are very insignificant.” He said.
It was learnt that the factionalize room of the party was triggered by zoning of positions ahead of the 2019 elections.
Reports had it later in the day that four members of the party have been arrested by police in Egbeda Local Government area for electoral fraud yesterday.
When contacted, both the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the state, Mr Adekunle Ajisebutu was not available for comments.