Members of the Osun Progressives (TOP), a faction of the state All Progressives Congress (APC), on Tuesday, held a protest in Osogbo, calling for the restructuring of the party.
Members of TOP are supporters of Rauf Aregbesola, minister of interior.
The party members called for the restructuring of the APC in the state following the party’s defeat in the July 16 governorship election and the sacking of Gboyega Famodun, Osun APC chairman.
The protesters carried various placards with inscriptions like: ‘Osun APC Needs Restructuring’; ‘Famodun Must Go’; ‘Save Osun APC from Total Collapse’; ‘Aregbesola is the Soul of APC/Progressive Politics in Osun’.
They marched through Odi-Olowo, Olaiya, Ogo-Oluwa and made their way to the Osun house of assembly where they delivered a letter to Timothy Owoeye, the speaker.
Addressing journalists, Abosede Oluwaseun, factional youth leader, said the party needed to be restructured from unit, ward, LG and state levels for it to be united and formidable ahead of the general election.
“With conscious, sincere and objective analysis of the outcome of the governorship election, we discovered that the electoral loss is not only self-induced by the party’s administrators, it also reflects party issues which had been raised by concerned minds in the recent past,” Oluwaseun said.
“The issues, to summarise them, boil down to glaring mismanagement of the party by governor Gboyega Oyetola and the party chairman, Gboyega Famodun.
“The chairman has totally demonstrated lack of capacity to manage the party and this reflects in the result of the July 16 governorship election.
“As a chairman of a ruling party going for election, Famodun didn’t consider it essential to resolve disputes and crises that dotted all the local governments in the state.
“Before the governorship election and till now, there is no understanding, cooperation, unity and cohesion in the party.”
Oluwaseun said their demand include dissolution of the party executive at all levels in the state and setting up of an independent caretaker committee to oversee the restructuring of the party and other issues..
Reacting, Famodun condemned the protest, describing it as “shameful, callous and wicked”.
In a statement by Kola Olabisi, his media media adviser, Famodun said the protest was misplaced and inconsiderate.
He alleged that the APC factional members had worked against the success of Oyetola at the polls.
“Assuming but not conceding that there are challenges within the party, the protesters should be told that they lack moral right to either suggest or effect any likely solution as it is on record that they massively and collectively worked against Gov. Oyetola, the APC governorship candidate, in the just-concluded election in line with the series of their threat,” he said.
“One would have thought that the appropriate place for them to canvass for the restructuring of any party is Senator Ademola Adeleke’s Ede country home, whom they voted for with flaunted pride.”
