The crisis rocking the ruling All Progressives Congress in Osun State appears to be getting worse as the camps of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and the camp of the. Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, are set to conduct different congresses.
The ward congress of the party is expected to start this Saturday but supporters of the two Osun APC leaders are at loggerheads over nomination forms for the offices available to contest.
The Osun State Caretaker Secretary of APC, Rasaq Salinsile, who is a member of The Osun Progressives(TOP) on Thursday alleged that the nomination forms from the national secretariat of the party have been hijacked and taken over by Ileri Oluwa group. ( governor’s group).
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Aregbesola, who is at loggerheads with the governor is backing the TOP
Salinsile, who ruled out consensus in the congresses claimed that the Ileri Oluwa group (governor’s group) took the congress committee to the Government House to prevent interested members from having access to the nomination forms.
He, however, said the interested members of the TOP had purchased nomination forms from Abuja to prevent being shut out with that tactic.
He said the group would go ahead with it’s on congresses on Saturday.
He said, “We didn’t sit anywhere to decide on the mode of election, out of the three options that we have in electing officers, consensus, direct and indirect primary.
“In a situation where you are going for consensus arrangement, the constitution of the party clearly states that all stakeholders must agree. No one must be left out, if one disagrees, you must look for another option. In this instance, as the state secretary of the party, I was not carried along.
“I learnt that nomination forms arrived on Sunday, but up till now, I have not seen a copy. But rumours have it that the nomination forms are in the governor’s house. The forms ought to have been delivered at the secretariat, in my custody as the
party scribe, I should sign for its delivery but I didn’t even see it.
“They are even saying they will not give anyone the forms apart from members of Ileri Oluwa. But we shall meet on Saturday.
“We got our forms from Abuja, we paid to the national secretariat and got the forms there. We will wait for them till Saturday and if they decide to go ahead with the congress without us, we will hold our congress, we will adopt direct primary and allow the national leadership to decide which group is wrong.”
But Commissioner for Political Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, Taiwo Akeju, who reacted to the claims described it as flashood and urged stakeholders to ignore him.
Akeju berated Salinsile, who he accused of peddling rumour to smear the reputation of Oyetola.
He said, “Government House is not party secretariat. The congress members are around. The forms are available at designated areas. The party members know where to get the forms. Sainsile should not mislead our members.”