FORMER Secretary of the All Progressives Congress in the State of Osun, Alhaji Rasak Salinsile has described the 11-man committee set up by former governor Adegboyega Oyetola to reposition the party as an insincere move and a cluster of hypocrisy.
Ismaeel Uthman
Salinsile who was the chairman of a faction of the party loyal to the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, said Oyetola has not ceased from taking members of the party for a fool and hiding behind a finger.
According to Salinsile, Oyetola has continued to toe the wrong path which led to the avoidable fall of the APC, noting that the former governor is just grandstanding.
Salinsile spoke in an exclusive interview with OSUN DEFENDER.
He stated that none of the stakeholders in Aregbesola’s tendency was consulted or informed about the composition of the repositioning committee.
READ: Adewole Heads 11-Member Committee To Restructure Osun APC
The former Chief of Staff to the Governor questioned Oyetola’s sincerity on the purported repositioning of the party, just as he wondered why the former governor would choose only his loyalists as members of the committee.
Salinsile said: “We don’t know anything about the repositioning committee set up by Oyetola. I want to categorically state that the former governor was only making merry he is not serious about the repositioning matter.
“I wouldn’t know where two groups will have differences and you call one group, especially, your own group that you want to do restructuring.
“Oyetola is toeing the wrong path and that is how he destroyed the party in the first instance. A situation whereby a leader of the party will be playing politics of division, saying he doesn’t want to see a set of people. He is a failure.
“He is planning another failure now. He has thrown our party into confusion. He has relegated our party. The party that we suffered to build over years.
“I believe with the tragedy of the last elections, he ought to have learnt his lesson. I thought he would be magnanimous enough to have appealed to the people. Even if he could not do it directly, he should have sent emissaries.
“You want to reposition a party you destroyed with politics of division, you want to reconcile members and you are doing it in your own house and not the party secretariat. It is just an IleriOluwa affairs, not APC matter.”
Asked if he would honour invitation or submit memorandum to the committee, Salinsile said he could not give credibility to the committee by featuring in any of its activities.
He said: “Repositioning and reconciliation were what we are calling for when we formed The Osun Progressives (TOP) and I was the chairman of the APC of our tendency. We wrote 15 good letters to the National Secretariat; but we never got any reply.
“That time, we were trying to bring in the party at the national level to come and reconcile us so that the tragedy of July 16, 2023 will not happen but they refused simply because Oyetola was part of them and now you are saying you want to reposition and reconcile people and you only called your own people to do that. That would not work.
“I am sure the committee won’t come to me for memorandum because up till now, they don’t see our group as part of APC and unfortunately, we are the original APC members. Majority of those who are now in the other side, starting from the Chairman of the so called committee met us in the party.”
To pave way for genuine reconciliation, Salinsile said the first level of leaders of the APC will meet, follow by the second level leaders who will summon the general stakeholders and then members of the party.
“To pave way for genuine reconciliation; all those the leaders will have to meet first. When the first level leaders have met, they would design how they will do it. They will call the second level leaders and then the general stakeholders of the party. The acknowledged leaders of the party would have to meet first.
“Let me come out clearly, any repositioning and reconciliation that does not involve Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is an exercise in futility; it is a waste of time. It will never fly. Because it was Aregbesola that organised people and party when there was almost no party after the 2003 governorship disaster where Chief Bisi Akande lost to the PDP and everybody deserted the party.
“Aregbesola came and reorganised the party. Gradually, people came back to the progressives folds. Since then, people have never left him. So, if they want to do anything in this state that has to do with politics and people and you say Aregbesola does not matter, you are only wasting your time.
“I’m sure when genuine reconciliation come up, people at the helms of affair at the national level will invite all of them and from there on, there will be a real reorganisation and genuine reconciliation. Without that, forget it.
