Some former kitchen cabinet members of a former governor of Oyo State, Abiola Ajimobi, have kicked against his bid to occupy the position of the Deputy National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress.
A two-page communique, jointly signed on Sunday by some elders of the Oyo APC who are mostly from the Unity Forum in Ibadan stated that factions within the party must be carried along before an appointment was made in Oyo.
Among those who signed the communique are Ajimobi’s former deputy, Chief Moses Alake-Adeyemo; his secretary to the state government, Alhaji Akin Olajide, his special adviser on politics, Alhaji Fatai Ibikunle; Senator Soji Akanbi, Alhaji Abu Gbadamosi, Dr Ahmed Ayinla, Alhaji Ganiyu Alade, Lasun Adebunmi, Pa Tijani Balogun, Alhaji Lekan Kazeem, Chief Abolade Akinyemi, Chief Goke Oyetunji, Abodunrin Hammed and Fatai Ayanyemi.
Ajimobi is being touted to occupy the vacant position of the deputy national chairman of the party in the South.
However, criticisms continued to trail his nomination days after the news broke that he was being considered for the slot.
The communique read in parts, “We have watched with concern and a lot of trepidation at the widening polarisation of our great party in Oyo State. This polarisation has made the party to lose the gains of many years of hard work.
“We cannot close our eyes to the fact that in the course of party events, the polarisation led to the emergence of factions. Recently and in spite of our efforts at the local level to reconcile these factions, the news came out that a national position was being recommended to be given to a member from one of the factions.
“This has caused a lot of tension and breakdown of reconciliation talks. We, therefore, took a very decisive step by calling an emergency meeting on Wednesday, February 12, with a view to calming down nerves.
“After much deliberations, we came to the conclusion that a strategic vision of the future demands that no faction is empowered with party appointment until a true reconciliation of all these factions have been done. Doing otherwise may lead to total collapse of the party in Oyo State.
“We are recommending that no national executive appointment within the party should be made for now from any of the factions until a true reconciliation has been effected.
“We affirm our confidence in all our national leaders. We specially appreciate the reconciliation steps taken so far by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande.
