● Aregbesola Danced Buga to Spite Oyetola
● Oyetola Directed his Caucus to Shut Door of Peace
The battle for the soul of Osun state All Progressives Congress (APC) took turn for the worst on Wednesday as rival factions hosted two factional events, one for former Interior Minister, Rauf Aregbesola and another for the immediate past Governor of the State, Adegboyega Oyetola.
The former minister, an arch rival of Oyetola entered Osun today dancing buga on the street of the capital with mammoth.crowd of supporters. Allies of the former Governor, Oyetola gathered elsewhere to hold a supposed stakeholders’ meeting which appear to target the Ilesa born Aregbesola.
By hosting the Oyetola’s meeting today, insiders hinted it was designed to whitle down any rousing support for the former minister.
The Oyetola meeting reportedly vowed never to have anything to do with Aregbesola and even reportedly issued instruction to local party leaders to ostracise loyalists of Aregbesola from the party.
“Our leaders warn that no deal, no negotiation, no reconciliation with Aregbesola. In fact, running Aregbesola out of the party is the plan. The instructions are clear”, an APC loyalist revealed.
Aregbesola on the other hand entered the State royally with with symbolic dance of buga and throwing of punches widely interpreted as reference to Oyetola defeat at the polls.
Even when he called for reconcilliation, the Oyetola camp regards the Buga dance and public knock out shows as a subtle attacks and a continuation of the former minister’s plot against Oyetola.
Aregbesola Peace Offer
Meanwhile , the former Minister has called for reconcilliation and forgiveness.
Aregbesola, a two term Governor of Osun state spoke extensively at the Freedom Park Osogbo, reflecting on his political life and the need to plan for the future.
Aregbesola said it was unfortunate that ‘some people’ mismanaged the affairs of the APC and ran it aground.
He said he had in 2019 called for the unity of the party with a warning that failure to unite different interest groups in the party would not produce any good result.
The former governor of the state said: “I have come back to thank you, the people of Osun and those who made it possible for me to progress in politics.
“I need to thank Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, it was through him that I became a Commissioner in Lagos state and a two-term governor in Osun.
“I appreciate former President Muhammadu Buhari; after God, it was him that made me the Minister which I just concluded.
“I am here today to seek restructuring of the party. I didn’t offend anybody, but whoever feels that we offend him or her should forgive us.
“We seek forgiveness from those who thought we offended and those who sought our downfall.
“We were here in 2019 after the Supreme Court affirmed the mandate of the former governor. I called for unity in the party. I warned that disunity will not produce any good result. But devil didn’t allow them (those who handled the party affairs) to listen.
“We seek forgiveness from those who are smearing our image, though we never offended them.
“We supported them with all I have to see to their success. I didn’t ask for anything from them. I need to emphasise that I didn’t ask for anything from them. But they chose to repay evil for good.
“However, we are here for the restructuring of the party. That is why we are begging anybody that feels that we offended him or her to forgive us.”
Aregbesola’s Offers Rejected
The peace offer appears to have been rebuffed sooner than expected. An APC Chief told our correspondent last night under condition of anonymity that ” the battle for control of APC has just started.
” We cannot deceive ourselves. The war just started. The wound is deep. Healing is not in sight.
” As we fight, the PDP Governor is entrancing himself. At our matting with the state acting chairman, we made self confessions. Adeleke is loved by the people.
” So we know the future is somehow dark for APC in Osun. Asiwaju may soon start romancing Adeleke. So APC is in deep mess in Osun state “, the politician lamented.
