The leadership and acceptance crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Oyo State further deepened, on Friday, as a factional chairman, Alhaji Abu Gbadamosi, was sworn in.
The swearing-in ceremony of the parallel state executives was held at Trans Wonderland Plc, popularly known as Amusement Park, Bodija, Ibadan, and the oath administered on Gbadamosi by Barr. Kehinde Owoade of MFN Chambers.
OATH OF OFFICE
After taking the oath, Gbadamosi also administered the oath of office on the party’s chairmen in all the 33 Local Government areas of the state.
Major stakeholders of the party had unanimously rejected Isaac Omodewu as the state chairman of the party, as sworn-in by the party’s National Secretariat.
The stakeholders, who had earlier condemned the inauguration of Omodewu, hinged their argument that the congress that produced Omodewu was flawed and had earlier been rejected by the party’s national caretaker committee.
FACTIONAL CHAIRMAN’S REMARK
After administering the oath on the 33 local government chairmen, Gbadamosi said he had committed no crime by taking the oath of office as Oyo APC Chairman.
He noted that the position was zoned to his Local Government Area, Kajola, saying Isaac Omodewu, a former Commissioner for Lands, Housing and Survey in the state, is occupying the position illegally. The post was not zoned to Itesiwaju, Omodewu’s Local Government Area.
He said: “In the election conducted, Omodewu’s Local Government (Itesiwaju) scored two, the other Local Government scored three while Kajola scored 16. You can build something on nothing. The process that led to his emergence was illegal.”
THE INAUGURATION
One of the APC leaders in the state, Senator Ayo Adeseun, said the party belonged to the “vast majority members,” noting that the inauguration of the “authentic chairman” of the party in the state, as well as that of the 33 local government chairmen, would return the party to the people.
Adeseun noted: “A small clique cannot hijack and take control and think they have succeeded at anything. We have tried to return the party to the people.
“You know what happened in the party some time ago, where some people did .what we call Kangaroo convention and go and stole the structures of the party.
“We have made a presentation to the national, and they have given us assurances that what they did was a non-event.”
RESTRUCTURING THE EXCO
The senator disclosed he did not have any issue with Omodewu, who had proved to be a gentleman, but that the issue is a democracy. Once the exco of the party is restructured, members would treat one another as friends and brothers.
He stated, “Let’s do what is needed first, and then we can collectively be friends and brothers. But saying you have stolen a mandate and want to plead and beg afterward is a non-event. He has been reaching out, and I commend him as a person, but that seat doesn’t belong to him.”
The senator affirmed that the party members would work together and get results.
He expressed confidence that the party would come out of its national convention, scheduled for Saturday, March 26, strong and unified, saying, “where there is no justice, there can be no peace, where there is no peace, there can be no progress.”
Other leaders who had made public their rejection of the Omodewu-led state executive include the Minister of Youths and Sports, Chief Sunday Dare; former Minister of Communications, Alhaji Adebayo Shittu; Senator Olufemi Lanlehin; Senator Soji Akanbi; Senator Fatai Buhari, representing Oyo North Senatorial district; Chief Adebayo Adelabu, gubernatorial candidate of the party in the 2019 election and Alhaji Fatai Ibikunle, Chairman of Nigeria Lotteries Regulatory Commission.
Other are Professor Adeolu Akande, Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission; Dr. Ismail Adewusi, Post-Master General of the Federation; Zacch Adedeji Adelabu, Executive Secretary of Nigerian Sugar Development Council; Chief Joseph Tegbe, a gubernatorial aspirant; Dr. Azeez Adeduntan, former Commissioner for Health and Honourable Wale Murphy Olatunji, Chairman, National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), among others.
E/Suzan O.
