The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has condemned the protest embarked upon by the supporters of the Interior Minister, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, against the state leadership of the party and the administration of Governor Gboyega Oyetola.
Placard-carrying Aregbesola supporters, under the aegis of The Osun Progressives (TOP), embarked on the protest in Osogbo, the state capital, from under the iconic Olaiya flyover junction, where they were publicly mocking the Governor and the leadership of the party over the loss of the 16 July governorship election.
In a statement issued in Osogbo by his Media Adviser, Mr Kola Olabisi, the APC Chairman in the state, Prince Gboyega Famodun described the protest as “shameful, callous, primitive, selfish, wicked, misplaced and inconsiderate for the Aregbesola supporters who glaringly worked against the success of Governor Oyetola at the polls to now be canvassing restructuring of the party”.
Famodun said: “When I heard that the supporters of the immediate past Governor of our state, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, were protesting, I thought my memory was playing me false as they cannot insulate themselves from whatever might be the current plight of the APC in Osun State.
“Assuming but not conceding that there are challenges within the party, the protesters should be told that they lack the moral right to either suggest or effect any likely solution as it is on record that they massively and collectively worked against 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.
“If I may ask, at what point did it occur to you that the political party that you had abandoned for about three years, which you have been working against needs restructuring?
“Did the Adeleke dynasty not fund your series of campaigns of calumny against Oyetola and the leadership of the party at the Aregbesola campaign office where you converge every Thursday with the task of scrambling to outdo one another in lampooning Oyetola’s administration and the leadership of the party?
“If you all have conscience, I will enjoin you to do individualistic soul-searching and ask yourselves if you are worthy to be called the members of our party again by your actions and inactions, which partly contributed to our temporary loss of the Osun State governorship election.
“Was it after you were rebuffed by the Pathfinder group faction leadership of the PDP, which pungently refused you patronages after the governorship election as it was witnessed by the composition of its Transition Committee membership that you thought of coming back into the party with a sing-song of restructuring?
“It is however, pertinent to state here that there is a free entry and free exit in any political party which memberships are bonded by common interests and ideals.
“Since politics is a game of number and the more the merrier; continuous membership of our party is not foreclosed to any genuine member whose interest would not be counter-productive to the interest of our party as you cannot be an outsider and be canvassing for the restructure of the party.”.
