From James Ogunnaike, Abeokuta
As the supremacy battle between the two factions of the Ogun state chapter of All Progressives Congress(APC) rages, a national leader of the party in Ogun State and its former governor, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, yesterday described the crisis as a ploy to “destroy him politically” by some unfaithful politicians who rose against him in 2003.
Osoba said this in Abeokuta at a consultative meeting held at his Ibara GRA residence to brief his loyalists on the intra-party crisis which has bedeviled the APC since the inception of the party in the helms of affairs in the state in 2011.
He said “the agenda of 2003 is on again. It is meant to destroy me again. This crisis is taking the same pattern; the same way it took in 2003. I didn’t know it was a sin to forgive and forget. I decided that I should forgive and forget what they did to me in 2003 so that we could wrestle power back from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after eight years”.
The consultative meeting which had in attendance some members of the National Assembly from the state including Senator Gbenga Kaka, Senator Gbenga Obadara, Senator Akin Odunsi and Hon. Adekunle Adeyemi in turn addressed all members of the faction that were present.
Osoba disclosed that he was inundated with phone calls from Nigeria while he was away in London that the Governor Ibikunle Amosun-led faction wanted to inaugurate the state executive of the party.
He expressed surprise that since he joined politics, such an action had never taken place.
On the state of the matter on the crisis that arose from parallel congresses of the party held in the state, the APC national leader said that the National Secretariat had directed that all reports on the congresses should be forwarded to it for scrutiny before taking decision on Tuesday 13th May, 2014 stressing that the issues is a national issue and not peculiar to Ogun State.
On the allegation of collecting bribe from the Amosun-led faction, Osoba completely denied the allegation saying “he had never collected any money from the governor or government, emphasizing that all he demanded was compensation in terms of jobs and appointments for party members who sacrificed all they had during the 2011 general elections to win the state”.
Osoba dismissed the rumour that he was planning to lead his followers to either the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or Labour Party(LP), alleging that the Federal Government is using both parties to destabilize the Southwest.
