Reinstated council chairmen divided over APC guber candidate choice

Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), yesterday, cautioned some unnamed governors and serving ministers on the platform of the party to desist from blackmailing it before President Bola Tinubu to favour Governor Ademola Adeleke.

It also threatened to roll out the list of party stalwarts from other states that had been using their affinity with Tinubu to talk down on the viability of the party in the state in favour of Osun State governor, who is their close ally.

This was contained in a statement signed by the Director of Media and Information of the APC in Osun State, Kola Olabisi. The opposition party condemned what it termed “inglorious and nefarious contributions of such highly-placed chieftains of the party both from some APC-controlled states and at the Presidency who, instead of adding value to our party in Osun State, have been engaging in anti-party activities at the Presidency by making unmerited case for the embattled Governor Adeleke.”

The statement reads in part: “In fact, we have the list of the black legs who do not wish our party well among whom are serving governors, ministers and highly-placed political functionaries at the Presidency who have been using their socio-business amity with Adeleke to dubiously sell him to President Bola Tinubu.”

IN another development, the reinstated Osun State Council chairmen, along with their predecessors from 2017 to 2022, are currently divided over the choice of APC governorship candidate for the state.

While some of them had earlier issued a statement begging for the governorship ticket of the APC to be given to the Chief Executive Officer of the National Inland Waterways Authority, Bola Oyebamiji, others dissociated themselves from the call yesterday.

The rebuttal was made in another statement signed by Osun Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Samuel Abiodun.Former Chairman of Boluwaduro Local Council, Akeem Tokede, who reportedly spoke on behalf of the reinstated chairmen, disclosed that they reached a consensus to beg the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, at a meeting in the Tinubu/Shettima Campaign Office.

Tokede added that they had launched a campaign group, Grassroots for AMBO, to further mobilise support for Oyebamiji. But reacting yesterday, ALGON, which distanced itself from the move, denied that the purported statement by the group was the consensus by all the reinstated chairmen.

According to him, endorsing such a move could cause friction and disaffection in the party.