The crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State has assumed a terrible dimension as leaders of the party are strongly divided over the choice of the Deputy Governorship candidate of the party, Mr Benjamin Adereti.
This is even as the former Deputy Governor of the state and a governorship aspirant of the party, Senator Iyiola Omisore, has not hidden his resolve not to support the party’s candidate, Mr Bola Oyebamiji.
Recently, leaders of the APC in Ife zone, under the leadership of Sooko Adeleke Adewoyin, met in Ile-Ife and called for proper unity within the party, even as the party leaders expressed worry about why the party elders are not properly carried along before Olareti was nominated as the party’s deputy governorship candidate.
It was gathered that Omisore and other leaders of the APC in the four local government areas in Ife zone did not have a hand in picking Adereti as the running mate to Oyebamiji.
A source within the party informed that the former Governor of the state and current Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, single-handedly nominated the deputy governorship candidate without consulting the leaders of the party in Ile-Ife and the entire Life zone.
It was gathered that the situation in the party has made some prominent members of the party, especially those loyal to Omisore, to boycott party activities in recent times.
In recent times, Omisore and his core supporters have been nowhere near the state secretariat of the party, even as they continue to shun important programmes organised by the leadership of the party.
At a recent reception organised for some members of the National Assembly who recently defected from the PDP to the APC at the Nelson Mandela Freedom Park, Osogbo, all the supporters of Omisore were conspicuously absent.
Also, at the 15th remembrance programme organised by Oyetola for his late mother, Omisore and his supporters were absent.
It was, however, learnt that efforts are being made by prominent leaders of the party, including President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the former Governor of Osun State, Chief Bisi Akande, to resolve the crisis in the party.
Omisore was reported to have concluded arrangements to challenge his disqualification from the governorship race in court, but for the intervention of the duo of Tinubu and Akande.
