Some stakeholders in the Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, have rejected the reconciliation and harmonisation committees set up to resolve the leadership crisis in the state chapter of the party.
In a press release,the stakeholders, on Wednesday, said they were not part of the reconciliation and harmonisation committees, describing the committees as dubious.
They also described the two committees as a poisonous design and an attempt by a discredited elders’ council to present before the public a false narrative about the situation of things in the party in the state.
The release was signed by Senator Ayoade Adeseun, along with other APC stakeholders in the state, including a former deputy governor in the state, Chief Moses Alake Adeyemo; Senator Abdul-Fatai Buhari; Minister of Youths and Sports, Hon Sunday Dare and Chief Adebayo Adelabu.
Others who also appended their signatures to the press statement included: Senator Adesoji Akanbi, Senator Olufemi Lanlehin, Alhaji Abu Gbadamosi, Hon. Tolulope Akande-Sadipe, Hon. Akeem Adeyemi, Hon. Olumide Ojerinde, Hon George Akintola, Hon. Jide Olatunbosun and Chief Joseph Tegbe.
Others are Chief Sarafa Abiodun Ali, Alhaji Waheed Olajide, Alhaji Olalekan Ali, Alhaji Fatai Ibikunle, Professor Adeolu Akande, Chief Mrs Hannah Ogunesan, Hon. Gunju Ojo, Mr Adesoji Eniade, Dr Ismail Adewusi, Hon. Zacch Adelabu Adedeji, Hon Yekini Popoola and Hon. Abass Aleshinloye.
Condemning news report on the committees, the stakeholders said that it is a laughable, tragic and a “false and disingenuous fake initiative by a dubious body.”
They added, “It is public knowledge that the so-called elders’ council had been in dispute since the idea was smuggled into a peace meeting at the residence of Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State in Ibadan in September 2020.
“The so-called council had never taken off as it had only witnessed meetings of members of a single caucus out of the many caucuses in the Oyo State chapter of the APC.
“It is also public knowledge that the purported chairman and secretary of the so-called elders’ council are boys of a particular senator and governorship aspirant, who has been hellbent on hijacking the party structure against the wishes of an overwhelming majority of members of the party.
“It is trite in law that you cannot be a judge in your own matter. This is exactly what the dubious elders’ council seeks to do with the nauseating idea of dubious kangaroo reconciliation and harmonisation committees to be inaugurated by it.
“We therefore put the public on notice that, true to the dubious character of members of that group, they will soon come out with names members of the fake committees purported to be members representing the contending groups in the party.
“This is to create a false impression before unsuspecting members of the public that the contending groups in the party are parties to the poisonous design.
“We state without any equivocation that none of the leaders of the Lam Adesina, Senator Rashidi Ladoja and late Governor Abiola Ajimobi caucuses of the party is a subscriber to the deceit packaged as reconciliation and harmonisation committees by the dubious elders’ council.
“The issue at take in Oyo State chapter of the APC is the sanctity of the ward and local government congresses of 2021 and flagrant failure to recognise the consensus chairman of the party, Alhaji Abu Gbadamosi, elected in accordance with the directives of the national secretariat of the party.
“Nothing short of respect for the wishes of the overwhelming majority of members of the party will restore peace in the party. The members of the clique purporting to constitute an elders’ council are only being clever by half.
“As it is popularly said, you cannot put something on nothing. Any initiative not based on truth and driven by the quest for justice will come to naught.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we,the undersigned stakeholders representing the major caucuses of the APC in Oyo State, dissociate ourselves from the dubioaus Elders CouncilIN OYO and the contraband they call harmonisation and reconciliation committees.
“The public should dismiss it like a piece of waste paper.”
