Akinwande Soji-Ojo
Members of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State, loyal to the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, have said Governor Gboyega Oyetola’s fight with their group cost him his re-election.
Chairman of the Aregbesola’s faction of the APC in the state, Rasaq Salinsile, who spoke with newsmen on Sunday, said it was obvious that the lack of unity in the party allegedly caused by “Oyetola’s politics of segregation” cost the APC victory at the poll.
Salinsile said he had seen the electoral defeat ahead of time and ran to party leaders, including the former national chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande, for help.
According to him, the APC presidential candidate, Senator Bola Tinubu, once sent an emissary to address their grievances but the person never returned to listen to their complaint.
He further said Oyetola should not have played politics of segregation or blacklisted anyone linked to Aregbesola.
“But it is an obvious fact that Governor Isiaka Oyetola came to destroy our party. We all worked as a united family to install him as governor in spite of all odds. But the moment he got there, he started politics of segregation and divide and rule tactics which he thought he could use to whip everybody back in line; particularly, he was against anything Aregbesola.
“How on earth can you be a Chief of Staff to a sitting governor for good eight years and pretended to him to be what you were not. I have never met that kind of person in my life and I am not a young man.
“He was not yet sworn in when he started the segregation, politics of hatred. Anybody that have anything to do with the immediate past governor of the state, Aregbesola; automatically, you become one of the members in his black book,” he said.
Speaking on how Oyetola allegedly caused crisis in the party, Salinsile said: “How can the leader of a house behave that way and you think that house will be peaceful? We said it severally without mincing words so that those who have ears will hear. We went to our leaders, starting with Baba Akande, to the national chairman of the APC. Asiwaju (Bola Tinubu) sent one Alhaji Masari from Katsina State to us; he was the placeholder for the APC presidential candidate.
“He said our resolutions should be written down that he would come back the following day to collect it, saying Asiwaju gave him that assignment. Up till today, we have not seen him. He never came back. Three times, Oyetola sent words to me saying if he calls me will I pick his call? If he invites me, will I honour the invitation? And I said he was still my governor and that I owe him a lot of respect.
“Every time, he will always disappoint. He later said the matter was beyond his power. In whose power was it then? That means there is somebody somewhere remote-controlling him. This result was expected,” the factional APC chairman said.
Salinsile noted that the party has been demolished, adding that the members would have to return to the drawing board.
“We now have to go to the drawing board and look for where we have erred and make amends. It was a very clear issue. It was Oyetola administration that brought calamity to our party. The remaining leaders must act now,” he said.
Reacting to Salinsile’s claim, Special Adviser to Oyetola on Political Affairs, Sunday Akere, accused members of Aregbesola’s group of working against the APC during the governorship poll.
He, however, said Oyetola and his men were not bothered, adding that they would be interested in how voting out APC government would get Aregbesola’s men patronage in the PDP.
“Now that they all voted the PDP, we shall see the unity they will bring into PDP. Because you have crises in your party, that doesn’t mean you should go all out to work for opposition.
“They have installed the PDP now, let us now see how that will assist them in uniting the APC in Osun. The constitution of the APC is clear. The governor is the leader of the party but Mr. Aregbesola as former governor did not want to allow his successor to control the party,” he said.
