Yusuf Oketola
THE crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the State of Osun began immediately after the inauguration of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola in November 2018, said the Caretaker Secretary of the party, Hon. Rasaq Salinsile.
According to Salinsile, the crisis started when Oyetola began to mark some members of the party as archenemies after his emergence as the Governor of the state.
Salinsile, who spoke with OSUN DEFENDER in a telephone interview accused Oyetola of being the architect of the crisis rocking the APC, noting that the Governor started his administration with politics of division and bitterness, which degenerated into the current crisis in the party.
The APC Secretary maintained that the crisis should not have been, but for the divisive attitude of the Governor, who took people that selflessly worked for his emergence as governor, in spite of stiffer opposition, as enemy.
He concluded that the Osun APC is on the dangerous path to the 2022 Governorship Elections, remembering that Governor Oyetola won his election with less than 500 votes when the party was not deeply in crisis as it is now.
Salinsile said: “Things have not been okay with the APC in Osun since Oyetola became Governor. The party’s crisis began immediately after his inauguration as the Governor of the state. The crisis started from the Governor; when he became to see some members of the party as his enemies. He started with bitter politics and introduced division into the party.
“The party that produced him started suffering since he became Governor of the state. Let me also say that violence and all ungodly things that where alien to the progressive family have surfaced since Oyetola came to power, especially, very recently, when he started bringing in all manners of people who don’t share the ideals and ideologies of the progressive family into the party.
“Things have turned so sour for our dear party. It is very sad. Anybody who knows what we went through before the progressives got to this level would not toy with our success, because people say: ‘once beaten, twice shy’ and politics is very dynamic.
“The way and manner that we dealt with the opposition in 2007 and the subsequent litigations for three-and-half years that gave us the victory in 2010, which we gallantly defended in 2014 may not be possible again.
“The opposition is wiser now and by next year, it would be 12 years that they lost power to us. The opposition is not relenting. With the way Governor Oyetola is disuniting the party (APC), we should be very careful and prayerful.”
Speaking on his arraignment in court on Monday, Salinsile said: “I was invited by the Police through one of our lawyers to the State Criminal Investigations Department on Monday, in connection with the attack on members of the APC during the sitting of the APC Ward Congress Appeal Committee on August 14, 2021.
“I was alleged to have assaulted some persons during the process. The charges against me and others are conspiracy, assault, attempted murder and others. I made my statement to the Police and immediately after that, myself and others, Biyi Odunlade, Lowo Adebiyi, Kazeem Salami and Gbenga Akano, who were also invited on same allegations were told that we were going to be arraigned straightaway. And that was how we landed in court.”
Asked who the petitioners are, Salinsile said: “I don’t know any of them. But I remember the names of one Ajetumobi and Aminat as petitioners. I learnt that Aminat is the Secretary of the Caretaker Committee in Osogbo South-West Local Council Development Area. I have never come across anyone of them.
“At this my age and with my status, somebody is frivolously accusing me of assault (which my children will never do), it is not a joking matter. I have never beaten anybody with cane in my life, not to talk of attacking somebody when I am closer to the grave. People could be funny. Anyway, this is politics. Politics is not meant for reasonable and responsible people alone. It is all-comers’ affair.
“The case is a show of irresponsibility. In actual fact, we should be the one to allege them because it was the Oyetola people that brought thugs to the APC Secretariat that day. They were led by one Akeem, who I invited to my office and questioned why he would be doing that.
“He said because he wanted to see Ogbeni and Bola Ilori was preventing him, and that we, Aregbesola’s people do not relate with or recognise him again. And because of that, he wanted to show us that he is still relevant. I told him to drop all those things. I reminded him that if not for Aregbesola, he would have been a dead man by now because of his ailment. Ogbeni sent him out of the country for medical treatment.
“Some minutes after he left my office, the thugs with ‘Oyetola 4+4 fez caps’ started attacking our people. They even brought out guns and started shooting. I was rescued by the officers of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps that day. So, we should be the one to be accusing them.
“A reasonable person will query what the IleriOluwa people were doing at the party secretariat that day. They did not have any petition. We were the petitioners invited by the Appeal Committee. They were there because they wanted to cause problem and they started that by attacking APC members with TOP fez caps.
“The Governor is there; supervising brigandage, attempting to send people who helped him to get to office to prison as a payback for their commitment to the party, while he continues to closely marry opposition and trying to wage war against those who stood by him before, during and after the 2018 Governorship Elections, starting from Aregbesola, myself and others. Anyway, God will judge him.
