After loss to PDP, aggrieved members demand sack of Osun APC chairman

 

.Protest “shameful”, Famodun fires back

 

Some aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State, on Tuesday held a protest rally to call for the restructuring of the party, sequel to the loss of the party in the July 16 governorship election.

 

The APC members also called for the removal of the APC Chairman, Prince Gboyega Famodun, accusing him of mismanagement of the party and culpability in its electoral defeats.

 

According to the APC members who converged in Osogbo from across the 30 local governments of the State, they described the party under Famodun as a ‘vehicle with flat tyres’, saying it could not deliver victory in the 2023 general elections.

 

The APC members were armed with placards with inscription like: “Osun APC Needs Restructuring, Famodun Must Go, Save Osun APC From Total Collapse, Sack Famodun, Aregbesola Is The Soul Of APC/Progressive Politics In Osun, There Is No Life In Osun APC Again!, 2023: Asiwaju May Lose Osun With Famodun As APC Chairman, among others.

 

Chanting various political songs, the APC members walked through Odi-Olowo, Olaiya, Ogo-Oluwa, among heavily armed security operatives, to deliver a letter to the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hon. Timothy Owoeye.

 

It was observed that some armed political hoodlums were stationed inside the APC state secretariat, Ogo-Oluwa, Osogbo, whose gate was under lock, a situation that prevented the protesting party members from going into the place to meet available party officials.

 

Addressing newsmen and members of the public at different locations, a prominent member of the APC, Comrade Abosede Oluwaseun, said the party needs to be restructured from unit, ward, local government and state level for it to be united and formidable ahead of the coming general elections.

 

Oluwaseun said: “With conscious, sincere and objective analysis of the outcome of the governorship election, we discovered that the electoral loss is not only self-induced by the party’s administrators, it also reflects party issues which had been raised by concerned minds in the recent past.

 

“The party issues, which are unattended to till the present moment, regrettably cost our party the electoral victory and as concerned progressives, we felt the necessity to inform you that it is not safe to approach the 2023 general elections with same paper-tiger party under the leadership of Prince Gboyega Famodun, the State Chairman of the APC in Osun State.

 

“The issues, to summarise them, boil down on glaring mismanagement of the party by Governor Gboyega Oyetola and the Party Chairman, Gboyega Famodun. The Chairman has totally demonstrated lack of capacity to manage the party and this reflects in the result of the July16 governorship election.

 

“Under the leadership of both Governor Oyetola and Famodun, the APC degenerated and assumed the dangerous trend of having factions which later caused catastrophe and grief. Governor Oyetola, right at inception, embarked on a divisive move which transmuted the party into two parts.

 

“As a Chairman of a ruling party going for election, Famodun didn’t consider it essential to resolve disputes and crises that dotted all the local governments in the state. Before the governorship election and till now, there is no understanding, cooperation, unity and cohesion in the party.”

 

Speaking further, Oluwaseun said: “In order to address this emergent clear and present danger, we unequivocally make the following demands: The dissolution of all party structures from the unit to the state level.

 

“The setting up of an independent caretaker committee to oversee the restructuring of the party and turn it into an election winning machine again.

 

“Composition of an all-inclusive party executive structures from wards to state level within 90 days; and

 

“The redistribution of the state and federal legislative tickets in an all-inclusive manner to reflect true membership structure and tendencies.

 

“This in our humble opinion is the way forward from the logjam we found ourselves in the APC and unless we urgently take these steps, we stand the grave risk of suffering worse consequences in the coming elections.”

 

Addressing the protesters, the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hon. Timothy Owoeye, assured the party members of necessary steps to make the party united and formidable.

 

Owoeye said: “I want to assure you of a fact that every necessary step to be taken for our party to be united and formidable to continue to rule and win future elections would be taken.”

 

Reacting through his Media Adviser, Kola Olabisi, said the protest was 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 through a sponsored protest.

 

In Famodun’s words: “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, protesters should be told that they lack 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” Famodun explained.