Management of Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile-Ife, Osun State, has denied affiliation with the Democracy Polling Agency (DPA), a group that said it conducted a survey on major political parties in the state.
The group had, in a report released to some reporters and bloggers, claimed to be an affiliate of OAU, a development that was outrightly denied by the university.
“OAU is a University. We can’t have any affiliation with any democratic or autocratic group. That is not true,” the Public Relations Officer of the University, Mr Abiodun Olanrewaju told Osun Defender’s reporter when contacted.
Osun Defender also observed the non-existence of the group on the internet.
The group had in a snippet of the report of the survey conducted from the period of August to October 2024, on state of political parties in Osun, said the opposition party in the state, the All Progressives Congress, APC, had split into two halves with the Omoluabi faction holding roughly 45 percent of the old APC membership with the remaining about 60 percent being with the Oyetola faction tagged Ilerioluwa group.
It also said that from the period covered by the survey, the 60 percent share of the APC for Oyetola has dwindled by close to 45 %, adding that from across the three senatorial districts, the Oyetola faction of the APC has suffered torrents of decamping which may continues even as the survey was rounded up by October ending.
The report said respondents who left the APC mostly moved to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party whose membership swelled by more than 40 percent within the period under review.
Reasons cited for the mass exodus in the report from respondents’ reactions include – the impressive performance of the Osun Governor, the rigidity of state APC leadership to reconciliation moves, the slow response of Mr. Oyetola to discontinue his guber bid, the worsening economic climate and series of disasters that had befallen the party leadership in some local governments.
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Meanwhile, members of the APC and political analysts in the state have faulted the report, claiming it was a glorified PDP group.
Speaking with Osun Defender, a political analyst in the state, Olabiyi Owoade, said details of the report showed that those in the group are PDP members.
According to him, “I lost interest immediately when I saw the group said in its report that one of the reasons for the passive mass exodus of the APC members to the PDP was because of the impressive performance of the sitting governor, Adeleke.
“How can someone tell me the governor is performing excellently. That is far from it and it shows the bias of those in the group.
“This is the way the former governor, Gboyega Oyetola was deceived by some faceless groups then until he lost his re-election bid.
“Can we also call this one a faceless group because there is nothing on the internet about so-called group. They even claim crown to be an affiliate of a reputable institution like OAU. Now that they have been denied, there is need to probe that group and those behind it.”
Olamilekan Adigun is a graduate of Mass Communication with years of experience in journalism embedded in uncovering human interest stories. He also prioritises accuracy and factual reportage of issues.
