The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that it is not disturbed by the decision of the Omoluabi Progressives, a political group led by former governor of the state, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, to quit the party.
According to a statement in Osogbo, the state capital on Sunday, the group’s Organising and Publicity Secretary, Mr. Oluwaseun Abosede said that the decision was the consensus of its stakeholders.
Abosede said the decision was taken after the group ratified an earlier resolution of members from the 332 wards across the state at its monthly meeting held in Ilesa on Sunday.
But in statement on Monday, the state APC spokesperson, Chief Kola Olabisi said that the party was not perturbed by the announcement of those he described as “political gangbangers” to quit the party. According to him, the group had since left the mainstream of the party since 2022.
Olabisi statement read: ‘In fact, the preposterous announcement of the so-called Omoluabi Progressives to quit the APC is a good riddance to bad rubbish.
‘In the first instance, the kernel of the statement by the dissidents group amounted to a confused pack of rudderless political vagabonds who were approbating and reprobating at the same time as it is on record that a sizeable number of them have either been expelled or suspended from the party.
‘How would any rational human being, who has been suspended or expelled, announce his resignation to the whole world again? Is that not an example of superfluity?
‘We, in the Osun State APC, shall be happy to miss the political irritants and deviants who had since left the party by way of body and soul before the 2022 governorship election in the state.
‘You cannot be saying you are in our party and be working against the interest of the same party.
‘You are agents of the PDP in Osun State and you are still of service to the ruling party in the state.
‘What we are seeing with hindsight is that the hand is proverbially that of Jacob while the voice is identifiable to Isau. We shall be ready for the antics of the political renegades.
‘The ambulatory Omoluabi Progressives believe they are more progressive in Nigeria than the real progenitors of the progressives party having no respect for the elders and their political benefactors.
‘We are not bothered by the action of the frustrated and expired politicians who had since left the party about three years ago when all their efforts to destabilise and hijack the party did not come to fruition.
‘The recent announcement of your either forming or joining another party is the imminent beginning of your political funeral which will end up in your final burial through the 2026 governorship election.
‘More importantly, the blindfolded followers of the ill-fated Omoluabi Progressives will regret being part of this shenanigan.
‘Osun APC is waxing stronger by the day. Our message to the frustrated Omoluabi Progressive handlers is that whoever wants to bury his elder brother nakedly should take along his younger brother in order to show the latter how he too would be buried at the end of his journey of life’.
Omoluabi Progressives had said that its decision to quit the APC was a result of ostracisation, suspension, and expulsion of its leaders without a fair hearing from the party.
According to the group, continuous denigration of the party structure, and mismanagement of the state APC’s intra-party crisis, which led to the party’s loss in the last election cycle, has waned its strength and popularity among the people of Osun.
