- As Reconciliatory Efforts Fail
Our Reporter
Efforts by prominent leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to reconcile the former Governor of Osun State, Mr Gboyega Oyetola and a former National Secretary of the party, Senator Iyiola Omisore, may have hit a brick wall.
Leaders of the party, including former Governor of the state and pioneer National Chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande, former Secretary to the Osun State Government and Chairman of the Elders Caucus of the party in the state, Engr Sola Akinwumi, were said to have made efforts to reconcile the two stalwarts of the party, but to no avail.
Also, it was learnt that some leaders of the party in Ile-Ife, where Senator Omisore hails from, had made fruitless efforts to reconcile the two bigwigs.
Omisore, a former deputy governor of the state, had shown interest in the governorship race, but he lost out to former Commissioner for Finance, Mr Bola Oyebamiji, who emerged as the party’s governorship candidate through controversial circumstances.
Irked by the way and manner at which Oyebamiji emerged, Omisore threatened to institute a legal action against Oyebamiji and the APC, but he was reportedly prevailed on by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Chief Akande.
After jettisoning his decision to approach the court to challenge his disqualification from the governorship race, the leadership of the party in the state allegedly failed to carry Omisore and his group along in the affairs of the party, despite being a former National Secretary of the party.
Both Omisore and Oyetola were said to be at loggerheads over the candidature of Oyebamiji as Oyetola supported Oyebamiji against Omisore.
The development appears strange to political observers in the state as both Oyetola and Omisore had related closely before, especially during the 2018 governorship re-run election, where Omisore reportedly worked for Oyetola, the then gubernatorial candidate of the APC, which made him defeat Omisore.
It was widely speculated that Omisore was instrumental to the victory of Oyetola in the re-run election, having allegedly worked for him (Oyetola) in Ife South Local Government Area, which was one of the areas where the re-run election was held in 2018.
However, indications emerged that both Omisore and Oyetola are far apart now regarding political interest and efforts by the leaders of the party to settle the rift between them have failed.
Recently, some leaders of the party under the aegis of the APC Elders Caucus, otherwise known as Igbimo Agba, visited Omisore at his country home in Ile-Ife, but the visit did not yield any good result as the relationship between the duo of Oyetola and Omisore remains sour.
Also, some leaders of the APC in Ife zone, under the leadership of Sooko Adeleke Adewoyin, recently held a meeting with Omisore, where they called on the leadership of the party in the state to work for the party’s unity.
The APC leaders claimed that the deputy governorship candidate of the party, Benjamin Adereti, who hails from Ile-Ife, was nominated without consulting them, a development which they bemoaned.
