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#AsoRock2023: Atiku’s Battles Storms, Thorns, Rocks
Published
2 years agoon
The presidential aspiration of Nigeria’s erstwhile vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is sailing dangerously between rocks, deep sea and violent storms. In just the few days of the new year, his aspiration has taken some double-edged, devastating hits, threatening the whole project a major mishap and total wreck. The first one was from his erstwhile boss and political leader, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the second from an ex-media aide, a certain Mr. Michael Achimugu, while the third tornado was from Mr. Festus Keyamo, an activist-turned-politician.
While the former president and political leader, Obasanjo released a further damming condemnation of his former vice and poured ice water on his presidential aspiration, Achimugu, an ex-media aide, in a two-part leaked audio and video, simply deflated whatever is left of the vestiges of his integrity and morality. While the Adamawa-born former Customs Officer was battling with the whirlwind generated by the two attacks, Mr. keyamo, the Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, a former prosecutor with the various anti-graft agencies, took the matter further by approaching the Federal High Court, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) seeking an Interlocutory order compelling the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), the Economic and Financial crimes Commission, (EFCC) and the Code of Conduct Bureau, (CCB) to invite or arrest a certain Alhaji Abubakar Atiku and prosecute him for corrupt practices.
Achimugu had alleged that Atiku counselled Obasanjo as the President between the year 1999-2007 to set up a nebulous “Special Purposes Vehicle” (SPV) as a conduit pipe to siphon government funds from the Treasury without trace.
Before the leaked audio and video, the man Michael Achimugu was perhaps, a long-forgotten face within the Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s political set-up. He was a media aide in a distant past. But while he was with Atiku, he had meticulously scavenged damaging information and kept them securely in his vaults. The information he padlocked safely in his vault damaging materials, most discreetly procured, in readiness for a day the master would pinch him, and h would need to bite back. Today, he has re-emerged as a whistle-blower on his former principal.
Achimugu, who claims to be a former aide to the PDP flag bearer, accused him of using the Special Purpose Vehicles to usurp funds when he was Nigeria’s Vice President between 1999 and 2007.
The PDP and Atiku countered him immediately alleging that he was being sponsored by the rival All progressives Congress, (APC). A spokesperson for the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Dino Melaye accused the APC and its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of sponsoring one Michael Achimugu to blackmail the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar. His disclaimed him, saying the Michael Achimugu was never an aide to the PDP presidential candidate.
Atiku, a former Vice President and a perennial presidential contestant, since 1993, is battling heart-rendering betrayals and distractions from all angles in what appears to be his last shot at the presidency. First, his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is wretchedly fractured by his emergence as the presidential candidate. The unwritten zoning arrangement of the party clearly gives the ticket to the Southern hemisphere of the country. The arrangement was followed up till the National Convention of the party when the National Chairmanship went to the North Central, with the former Senate President, Dr. Iyorchial Ayu clinching the topmost party’s position. The Southern flank had hoped to produce the presidential candidate, but surprisingly, Atiku emerged victorious at the Convention held at the Eagle’s Square ground in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Ever, since his shock emergence, a large chunk of the party’s stalwarts, especially from the South, have been lukewarm to both party and the candidate’s activities. A most vociferous vocal group is led by the Rivers State Governor, Mr. Nyesome Wike. Wike and four others – Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Samuel Ortom (Benue), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) had withdrew their support for Atiku following the alleged failure of the former vice president to prevail on the National Chairman of the party, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, to relinquish his position to a Southerner. Their grouse was the emergence of both the party’s presidential candidate of the party, Atiku, and the national chairman, Ayu, from the same zone – the North.
The group, known variously as the Integrity Group or the G-5 has been relentless in their demand that for them to back the aspiration of the presidential candidate of the party, Alhaji Atiku Abubaker, the National Chairman, Dr. Ayu must stepped down and a southerner replaced him.
Aside this vocal group of governors a vast majority of the party’s members and sympathizers from the Southern hemisphere of the country are not fully warmed up to the candidature of Atiku. While the Eastern zone, where the party, PDP, used to harvest bountiful block votes have turned their protest to backing the Labour Party (LP) and its candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, the South South zone may no longer be there for the PDP again to garner blinding figures during elections. South West is propping up one of its own, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress (APC). This scenario may have practically shut Atiku and his party, PDP off the bulk of the almost twenty eight (28) million Southern votes.
Before the Machuga’s leaks, Atiku’s former leader, President Olusegun Obasanjo (1999-2007) drove the first dagger of betrayal in the heart of Atiku’s presidential aspiration. His New Year’s Day letter to the Nigerians was more of total condemnation and rejection of his Atiku’s candidature; a recourse to his belligerent views of 2014 and pre-2018 before the intervention of some clergymen led by Bishop David Oyedepo of the Living Faith Church, (winners Chapel), Rev. Fr. Hassan Kukah of the Sokoto Diocese of the Catholic Church, Sheik Gumi and others.
That Obasanjo now went ahead to endorsed Mr. Peter Obi over Atiku showed clearly that despite the trojanic efforts of Bishop Oyedepo, Sheik Gumi and others in 2018, the former President still rates his former deputy in a very low esteem.
To further distract Atiku, Festus Keyamo, a Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs and a spokesman of the Asiwaju Tinubu’s Campaign Council Tuesday (16 January) personally sent a strong worded petition to the anti-graft agencies, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, (ICPC) and the Code of Conduct Bureau, (CCB) The petition is based solely on the audio and video leaks from an ex-aide of Atiku, Mr. Machunga. Keyamo wants the PDP’s presidential candidate arrested and investigated over the serious damaging corruption allegations contained in the audio and video leaks.
The activist-turned politician had given the major anti-graft agencies in the country a seventy-two (72) hour ultimatum to either arrest or invite, interrogate and prosecute one Alhaji Atiku Abubakar for:
- offences against the code of conduct for public officers
- offence of money laundering.
- offence of criminal breach of trust and criminal misappropriation
- offence of conspiracy
The PDP presidential campaign spokesperson, Senator Dino Melaye replied by accused the APC of orchestrating “lies from the pit of hell” having realized that Atiku is a “leading presidential candidate” for the February 25 presidential election.
According to Melaye, Atiku remains the most investigated Nigerians as of today but has never been indicted or tried for corruption by any court in the country.
Labelling Achimugu as a “blackmailer” who has three ongoing cases of blackmail in court, Melaye said neither him nor anybody from the PDP Presidential Campaign Council would again comment on the issue as they intend to focus on more serious issues concerning the upcoming election.
But in a swift reaction, Keyamo countered Melaye saying: The spokesperson of the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, PCC, Festus Keyamo has maintained that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC and its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu have no alliances with Michael Achimugu, who is said to be a former aide of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar.
He denied any relationship or alliances with Achimugu, saying, “we’ve no alliances with Mike Achimugu. What do you expect them to say? They have no modicum of shame. They have no iota of shame. These are the types of people, who are asking Nigerians to vote for them. No iota of shame for them.
“I am going to court and so, if they wish this thing away, it will not go away, I will continue…I do this under three capacities; I’m a member of the inner bar; secondly, I’m an ordinary concerned Nigerian, who has the right to bring perpetrators of crimes to book”, the Minister said.
Festus Keyamo made good his threat Friday (20 January) when he approached the Federal High Court, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, seeking an interlocutory order compelling Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Code of Conduct Bureau,(CCB) Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, (ICPC), and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to appear before the honorable Court.
While all these darts keep coming, Atiku’s campaigns seemed to have thawed down considerably. His visits to Kwara, Kogi, and Ekiti were not impressive at all. The faithful’s seemed to have turned their backs. In Ekiti, two-time former governor, Ayo Fayose did not attend the campaign and no official reason was given. Of the two governors of the party in South West, Oyo and Osun, none attended the campaign. It was rudderless, to say the least.
Former president Obasanjo had in his new year letter, surreptitiously directed at the youths, who constitute almost forty per centage of the voting population, had said: “Let me say straight away that ‘Emi Lokan’ (My turn) and ‘I have paid my dues’ are one and the same thing and are wrong attitude and mentality for the leadership of Nigeria now”.
He continued: “My dear young men and women, you must come together and bring about a truly meaningful change in your lives. If you fail, you have no one else to blame. Your present and future are in your hands to make or to mar. The future of Nigeria is in the same manner in your hands and literally so. If for any reason you fail to redeem yourself and your country, you will have lost the opportunity for good and you will have no one to blame but yourselves and posterity will not forgive you. Get up, get together, get going and get us to where we should be. And you, the youth, it is your time and your turn. ‘Eyin Lokan’ (Your turn).
“The power to change is in your hands. Your future, my future, the future of grandchildren and great grandchildren is in your hands. Politics and elections are numbers game. You have the numbers, get up, stand up and make your numbers count.
“Let me say it again, loud and clear, Nigeria has no business with insecurity, poverty, insurgency, banditry, unemployment, hunger, debt, division and disunity. We are in these situations because advertently or inadvertently, our leaders have made the choices. They have done the best they could do. Let them take their rest deservedly or not and let them enjoy their retirement as Septuagenarians or older.
“Youth of Nigeria, your time has come, and it is now and please grasp it. If not now, it will be never. I appeal to you to turn the tide on its head and march forward chanting ‘Awa Lokan’ (Our turn) not with a sense of entitlement, but with a demonstrable ideological commitment to unity and transformation of Nigeria.
“None of the contestants is a saint but when one compares their character, antecedent, their understanding, knowledge, discipline and vitality that they can bring to bear and the great efforts required to stay focused on the job particularly looking at where the country is today and with the experience on the job that I personally had, Peter Obi as a mentee has an edge. Others like all of us have what they can contribute to the new dispensation to liberation, restoration and salvaging of Nigeria collectively”.
Atiku, unlike the APC’s candidate, did not respond to his former boss letter. But on Wednesday, (18 January) he was in Abeokuta to campaign and held a Stakeholders meeting with the Ogun State’s leaders. He lodged in an hotel less than one kilometre to Obasanjo’s Presidential Library’s home in Abeokuta, but unlike his practice in the past, when he would first visit the former leader, he did not bother to call on his former boss. During the campaign, he did not even mentioned his name. He total snubbed the former president.
A political analyst, Dr Edmurd Okolie told www.focusmagazineonline.com in Lagos that “as with his silence on Obasanjo’s letter, so it is with Micheal Achumgu’s video. The claims that his thirty one children are all angling on their father’s presidency to “live big”, are scarry enough, even more than the creation of another “Special Purpose Vehicles” (SPV) for siphoning funds out of the Treasury without forensic detection”.
www.focusmagazineonline.com (C2023)
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Featured
Osun Politics: Aregbesola Grappling in The Dark Alley…
Published
2 weeks agoon
November 30, 2024Battles Odds For Survival
Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, an iconoclastic political strategist, a former Executive Governor of Osun State and also a former Minister of the Interior Affairs has bluntly refused to comment on the political turbulence he is facing both in his State, Osun, and Lagos, where he had a very strong hold on the political structure in Alimosho local government and more particularly, his well-publicized rift with President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
But one of his right-hand man, who preferred anonymity in a matter of fact, declared that the “door to any reconciliation is closed, finally”.
The associate can actually feel undone by his party’s treatments of Ogbeni Aregbesola and his supporters. They were first expelled by the Osun State chapter in August 2023 by the State Executive Committee of the party.
The State Executive Committee had risen from its meeting and announced the suspension of another set of senior members believed to be supporters and followers of the one-time governor of the State and Internal Affairs Minister, Rauf Aregbesola. Prominent figures on the new list includes the former Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Moshood Adeoti, a former Speaker, Osun State House of Assembly, Hon. Nojeem Salami, a former member of the House of Representatives, who was the Senatorial candidate of the party in Osun East Senatorial District, in the last general election, Hon. Francis Famurewa, and a former Special Adviser to governor Aregbesola, Mr. Kunle Ige, and twenty-two other senior members of the party across the State.
But in a swift reaction then, Mr. Kunle Ige, had dismissed the suspension saying “it is irrelevant and stupid. They can’t even follow common due process. They are destroying the party.
I haven’t been home (Esa Oke) in ages. Since the last election, so where was the anti-party activity? I wasn’t even home (Esa Oke) for the last election. They don’t even think”, he queried.
According to Kunle Ige, the best thing is to “ignore them completely. I don’t have the time for their nonsense”
However, the gale of suspensions were alleged to be a direct response to the launching of the Omoluabi Caucus by the former governor, Aregbesola, in his country home in Ilesa.
While the suspension or expulsion of August 2023 seemed to have died down, another one suddenly erupted in October, 2024. This time around, Ogbeni Aregbesola himself was suspended from the party. And more, he was to face a disciplinary committee for his alleged infractions.
However, this is not the best of time for the political maverick, Ogbeni Aregbesola. His political trajectory from his time at the robustly influential Works Ministry in Lagos State, two-time Executive Governor of Osun State, and lastly, Interior Ministry overseer, attest much to his status as a charismatic grassroots political mobilizer; a man passionately loved by his people, but with an eccentric bend.
While he held sway in Lagos, he built a fortress around himself in the Alimosho local government, the celebrated largest local government area in the country. He controlled the political pulse of the area. And also, was the Alpha and Omega in the larger political empire of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He simply filled the role of a “Mr. Fix It”. He was both de facto and de jure alta ego of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
But presently, the man widely acknowledged as “Mr. Fix It” among the progressives clan is in a political quandary; he is simply at a political cross-road. His weird eccentricity has impacted much on his decisions and actions.
Now Ogbeni Aregbesola himself is in a fix politically. He is said to be nursing either a senatorial ambition from the Osun East (Ife/Ijesa) Senatorial district or if the new party in the offing comes alive, a vice presidential slot with Mallam Nasir El Rufai. But while he gropes for just anything to hang on to for safety in the dark alleys the bitter divorce with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and the Bourdillion’s political family, has thrown him into, his supporters were still incorrigibly optimistic about his chances of clinging either of the two positions.
But the political road is dark, the coast is very bleak. He is very familiar with all the intrigues and cut throat shenanigans in political circle. He was the Lord in Tinubu’s political empire at a point. He knew the door to his familiar terrain in the All Progressives Congress (APC) might have been permanently shut against him. After all, he witnessed the door being shut against some of his erstwhile colleagues while serving as the Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure in Lagos State.
A member of the Governing Advisory Council (GAC) in Lagos State, who spoke to our correspondent, asked rhetorically recently in an interview with www.focusmagazineonline.com that “of the more than twenty Commissioners, who served under Tinubu with Aregbesola, how many can confidently raise their hands up and still stand by him?
He continued, “the downfall of these men were largely the scheming and shenanigans traceable to Ogbeni Aregbesola. Even the former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode would not forgive him in an hurry”, he said.
Now, the Apha Ogbeni Rauf, is in a quandary himself. He cannot break the barrier erected against him in Tinubu’s empire or APC. He finds it extremely difficult to co-habit with the uninspiring Adeleke Ademola in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party is an amnesia to him, yet he has the ambition of going to the Senate or running as a Vice President. Hence the option of a new political party. The new party according to proponents will be national in outlook and is expected to push both the ruling APC and PDP into the limits.
www.focusmagazineonline.com can recalled that Ogbeni Aregbesola, at a point was effectively, the de facto Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu’s alter ego. in the group, he decided what happened and who got what, in short, he called the shots. And in the words of an All Progressives Congress (APC) leader in Lagos State, the common refrain then in Bourdillion, Tinubu’s residence and political headquarters, was: “go and see Rauf”.
According to the member of the GAC, who preferred anonymity, whatever happened, or who got what or became what, be it in the Governing Advisory Council (GAC), the apex committee overseeing the affairs of Lagos State Government by proxy, were decided mainly by Ogbeni Aregbesola. He was said to have promoted, demoted, terminated, even truncated many political ambitions while his grips on Bourdillion lasted. His imprimatur were said to be everywhere. But not anymore.
Perhaps, his present travails allegedly started from his closeness, roles and actions as Tinubu’s alter ego. As the associate believed that “many around Asiwaju weren’t comfortable with Rauf being so close to Asiwaju… and thus sponsor and even encouraged the division”.
The first signal was the dissolution of the Mandate Group in Lagos. The Group was formed by the core loyalists of Bola Tinubu, the then Executive Governor of Lagos State. Ogbeni Aregbesola was largely in control. By 2017, he had installed his protégé, Alhaji Abdullahi Ayinde Enilolobo as the Apex leader. Suddenly the group, alongside others like Justice Forum and BATCO were dissolved by fiat by the party’s leadership.
However, Ogbeni Aregbesola’s followers in Osun traced his disagreements with the leadership of the Tinubu’s political hegemony to the succession politics in Osun State when his tenure as a two time Executive Governor was rounding up in 2017. Sources in Oshogbo, Osun State, Aregbesola was said to have insisted in having Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, from Iwo Local Government of Osun West Senatorial District as his successor. Thus he plainly explained to Tinubu. But Tinubu was alleged to have preferred his cousin, Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola from Iragbiji, in Boripe Local Government Area, Osun West Senatorial zone of Osun State. From this point, the loggerhead between the two political gladiators was said to have taken its roots. Asiwaju was said to started distrusting Ogbeni and started “feeling that he was becoming a threat to his ambition”.
Aregbesola was said to have grudgingly accepted to work for Gboyega Oyetola at the polls during the 2018 out of circle governorship election in Osun State. Oyetola had emerged victorious after a most rancorous election ever that ended with re-run in four words of Ile Ife, Orolu, and Oshogbo returned him with a margin of less than 500 votes.
In the said election, Aregbesola’s anointed candidate, Moshood Adeoti with hordes of his supporters had mass-moved into another political platform, the Action Democrats Party (ADP). Alhaji Moshood Adeoti cornered the over fifty thousand votes from the Iwo axis, but performed poorly in all other local governments. He came a distant fourth behind Oyetola, Adeleke, and Omisore.
Aregbesola, the master political strategist, took good notice of these returns from the elections. He waited patiently, observing the various take home from the off-cycle election, while looking for the right time to strike. He needed to exact his revenge and teach his former leader some political lessons.
The former eccentric governor started his vengeance war with the ministerial nomination for the State. He was said to have stunted both the nominations of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and another elder of the party, Chief Bisi Akande, to emerge the Interior Affairs Minister during the second term of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure. He was alleged to have used another eccentric political strategist up North, Mallam Nasir El Rufai to clinch the slot. With his emergence as a Minister, he was said to have clearly drawn the battle line with his political block. And from there, he brooks no odds. He started creating his platform, well outside the Bola Tinubu’s or APC’s blocks.
First step was the launching of the True Osun Progressives group (TOP), then the Omoloabi Forum within the State APC. These groups were essentially made up of notable foot soldiers of APC in Osun State, but who were fiercely loyal to Ogbeni Aregbesola. The twin group quickly spread across all the thirty-three local governments in the State. The State Government under Mr. Oyetola was said to have been seriously rattled by the emergence and spread of TOP in the State. The party also panicked. Known members of Aregbesola’s government were the leaders.
While the newly formed TOP and Omoluabi groups could not wrestle the governorship ticket from Oyetola during party’s primary leading to the 2022 off-cycle governorship election in the State, they quickly drew back and withdrawn from the party’s activities. When they re-emerged, it was with the opposition candidate, Mr. Ademola Adeleke.
The experience of the 2018 election that pitied Aregbesola’s candidate, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti of ADP with Iyiola Omisore of SDP, Jackson Adeleke of PDP and Oyetola of APC together has taught the maverick political strategist a lesson. Obviously, Adeoti cannot pull through if fielded again. Then his next move was shocking. Aregbesola and his troops decided to deployed their political weight behind Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He won.
Not many people were fooled when known acolytes of the former Minister started mobilizing for Adeleke. APC made faint attempt to mend fences. But it was rather too little or too late or both. Efforts by notable personalities, including the renown cleric, Papa Enoch Adejare Adeboye, an Ifewara Ijesaland born General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, (RCCG), the Ooni of Ile Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, and others ended with naught.
Responses to all these attempts to thaw the raging rift were not encouraging. It was apparent by the body languages of the main actors that the two main combatants are done with each other. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu seemed apparently, tired of Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola and vice-versa. Nothing seemed pulling the mutual confidence again. Aregbesola became bitter, enraged. And he let loose his anger, albeit, without restrain.
On the day of the election, the Minister was out of the country but apparently was keenly watching and monitoring events from home. But very early the second day, while the results started pouring in and Adeleke of PDP was edging Oyetola clearly in all the local governments, someone in his team haphazardly released a tweet that not few consider irrational. Although the tweet was quickly pulled down and disclaimed, certainly not a few had saved, or screenshot it. The “Osun Le Tente” tweet (Osun on top) will remain in the remembrance of many leaders for a long time to come.
Also, in the lead up to the APC’s presidential primaries, where thirteen aspirants slugged it out with Tinubu for the Presidential ticket, although Aregbesola was not in the fray, yet his hands were prominently seen and felt throughout the campaign.
While the campaign was gathering steam, Aregbesola was in Ijebu Jesa. He needed to meet his TOP members. A woman loyalist who claimed she attended the well-attended meeting recalled to www.focusmagazineonline.com the hard words he deployed while describing Bola Tinubu.
This many damaging rumours that later emanated from the Ijebu Jesa’s meeting apparently hurt Bola Tinubu and his supporters to no end. It was at the period when a picture of him was trending. He had visited a former Military President in his residence in Minna and the paramount ruler of Ijebuland, Awujale of Ijebu Ode, Oba Sikiru Adetona, when for whatever reasons, a patch of wetness was observed on his lower backside when standing up. This was translated by detractors to mean uncontrollable blader, an illness often associated with old age or panicking.
However, Ahmed Tinubu would eventually emerged the winner of the election and inaugurated the sixteenth President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And ever since Aregbesola has been in the political wilderness, operating on a thin thread, occasionally test running various strategies to reestablish himself.
He has been seen variously hobnobbing with the government of Ademola Adeleke, the Osun State Governor, and also, had appeared in open drive along major streets both in Oshogbo and Ilesa. But these political stunts were not enough to fetch him any huge dividends.
But while all seemed stable a bit, the Osun State chapter of the APC slammed him with a suspension, over allegations of anti-party activities. The suspension, which takes immediate effect, is pending the outcome of disciplinary proceedings initiated by the state’s party leadership.
The decision to suspend the former Governor followed a request from the Ilesa East Local Government APC Executive Committee, which petitioned the state party chairman, Tajudeen Lawal, to take action against Aregbesola, citing his alleged involvement in actions that undermined the APC as a party.
The committee, in a letter, accused Ogbeni Aregbesola of promoting factionalism and colluding with opposition parties, among other allegations.
Responding to the request, the Osun State APC Executive Committee notified the party’s national leadership, represented by APC National Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, of its decision to suspend Aregbesola and to establish a disciplinary panel to investigate the charges.
The resolution, dated October 22, titled “Resolution Suspending Rauf Aregbesola for Anti-Party Activities and Constituting a Disciplinary Committee,” was signed by Osun APC Chairman Lawal and Secretary Kamar Olabisi. The document outlined the allegations and Aregbesola’s suspension based on Article 21 of the APC Constitution.
“Following complaints of anti-party activities levelled against Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola by the Ilesa East Local Government Executive Committee, the State Executive Committee (SEC), after reviewing the allegations and in accordance with the powers vested in it by Article 21(3)(vi)(c) of the party’s Constitution, hereby suspends Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola from the party pending the outcome of an investigation,” the statement partly read.
The charges against Aregbesola include, factionalizing the APC by forming the Omoluabi Caucus splinter group; allegedly collaborating with opposition parties to destabilize the APC in Osun State; publicly criticizing party leaders, including President Bola Tinubu, Chief Bisi Akande, and former Osun Governor, Gboyega Oyetola; refusing to participate in or support APC activities within the state; and refusing to vote for the party since the 2019 general elections.
The committee will deliver its findings and recommendations to the state executive within 14 days. It also issued a formal notice to Aregbesola, inviting him to appear and defend himself against the allegations.
In a follow-up letter dated October 24 and signed by Osun APC Disciplinary Committee Secretary, Waheed Adediran, the former governor was given 48 hours to respond to the allegations in writing.
Sources at the party’s secretariat in Oshogbo revealed to www.focusmagazineonline.com that the former Minister had simply spurned all the letters sent to him.
When www.focusmagazineonline.com contacted him on his WhatsApp contact, for an interview, he simply reply “Thanks. No, please”
Many of his men who were suspended by the Osun chapter of APC however, denied receiving any letter of suspension from the party.
His men in Alimosho, Lagos State were also not willing to talk to the press. Alhaji Abdullahi Ayinde Enilolobo, his man Friday, refused to talk nor comments when contacted. He did not reply to all our messages to him.
But his troops in Osun State are boiling, not relenting in stating his case. Mr. Kunle Ige too was suspended by the party since August of 2023. But he told www.focusmagazineonline.com then that he was not aware of his suspension as he was not officially served any letter suspending him from the party.
However, many of the associates of the former Governor in Oshogbo were particularly irked by the recent developments. One of them, a former senior official of Ogbeni Aregbesola’s government revealed to www.focusmagazineonline.com that he was part of all the reconciliatory efforts to douse the tension between the two combatants, President Bola Tinubu and Ogbeni Aregbesola. But he noted sadly that “it appeared he (President Tinubu) is no longer interested in having Aregbesola around him”
Blunt and bold to a fault, Kunle Ige refused to comment on the suspension of Aregbesola. “No comment on the suspension… that’s their business…”, he blurted out when contacted by www.focusmagazineonline.com.
On the plans by some of Aregbesola’s supporter to announce their new political home this December, a former aide declared that “Ogbeni has not categorically given anybody any date…. But obviously he has his plans for the future politically especially for Osun…. The talk of December is because there is a third party option being planned … which might come on stream then… and it is a national one”.
The aide declared the rumoured adoption of Labour Party (LP) as “rubbish… LP was never was on the cards..”.
When asked pointedly why was it difficult for Aregbesola and Tinubu to settle their rift, considering the fact that Aregbesola was the de facto leader of Tinubu’s political block before the fall out, he insisted that “you should ask Asiwaju that question…”
Another associate who spoke to www.focusmagazineonline.com explained further that it “took Ogbeni a while to realise that they had been waging a war against him since 2017..”
He denied that the feud had its roots in the Moshood Adeoti versus Gboyega Oyetola’s struggle for the succession of Ogbeni Aregbesola. He said “well… certain things are now coming to light that shows that they had wanted to cut him (Ogbeni Aregbesola) to size since then (2017). They just wanted him to finish his term and step aside”.
With a despairing note, he declared that “I think that door (to any reconciliation) is finally closed”.
According to him, “Asiwaju is not interested in any reconciliation, since if he ever was, this wouldn’t have been an issue”.
He revealed that he had “been deeply involved in the past in trying to resolve the rift, but clearly Asiwaju isn’t interested”.
In Osun State, not many supporters of Ogbeni Aregbesola is discreet, about his next political moves. A former local government chairman told www.focusmagazineonline.com angrily that “God willingly by December, our Symbol, Rauf Aregbesola, will unveil the new party we are moving to”.
He also declared that “the people in APC, especially Tinubu, doesn’t need him in the party again, likewise the Oyetola’s camp in Osun. So we leave their party for them”.
www.focusmagazineonline.com ©December 2024
Featured
4 youths Perish in River Osun after Granny’s funerals
Published
1 month agoon
November 12, 2024By
FocusMagThe tranquillity and calmness of the sleepy, but rustic community of Oke Imesi, Ekiti West Local Government, Ekiti State, were ruptured early Sunday morning when four young boys were mysteriously drowned in the River Osun, along the Oke Imesi, Ido Ile and Ikoro road.
The four young boys, aged between 24 and 27, were said to be in the town to attend the final funeral rites of the grandmother of two of them.
When www.focusmagazineonline.com correspondent visited the town, people were seen in groups discussing the ugly incident in hushed tones.
Generally, silence and unease calm pervaded the atmosphere, even up to the Palace of the traditional ruler, Owa Ooye.
Eye witnesses disclosed to www.focusmagazineonline.com that two of the boys, Mr. Gabare and an unidentified friend, had followed their friends, Mr. Samson Anisere and his cousin, Mr. Leye Adeoti, to celebrate the final funeral rites for late Mrs. Anisere, who hailed from Obanla Compound, Oke Imesi.
Our correspondent learnt that the boys decided to go and swim in the river around 11:45 am, since they had decided not to embark on the journey back to Lagos on Sunday. The funerals were done on Saturday, November 9.
All through Monday, the traditional institution of the town were busy with offering of sacrifices and performing all necessary rituals to appease the god of river and to prevent a reoccurring of such ugly incident.
According to tradition, the corpses must be bury by the bank 0f the river and must be done without delay.
Meanwhile, the remains of the four boys were buried by the river’s bank on Monday evening, after consultation with all the families of the bereaved and necessary police report obtained by the community.
www.focusmagazineonline.com ©November, 2024
Featured
Ilobu Community Mourns late COAS, Lagbaja, suspends celebrations
Published
1 month agoon
November 7, 2024By
FocusMagThe passing of the immediate past Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Taoheed Abiodun Lagbaja has thrown the ancient community of Ilobu, in Irepodun local Government area of Osun State into deep mourning.
“We are downcast and in sorrow. He is not just the son of the soil, but one of the shinning stars of the entire Yoruba race. If you go round the community, you will see a community that is in deep sorrow”, Oba Olaniyan muttered.
The community was in the thick of hosting the 2024 Ilobu Day celebration slated for November 9, when the sad news filtered in that their most prominent son, General Lagbaja has passed in in a private hospital in Lagos, Lagos State.
“Ilobu is a very happy town, but this morning, the sun suddenly snatched away from our sky.”
But in a twist, Oba Olaniyan told newsmen that the Ilobu Development Union executives had an emergency meeting, where they decided that Ilobu Day 2024 celebration be suspended indefinitely.
www.focusmagazineonline.com gathered authoritatively that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu spared nothing to save the live of the gallant infant Officer. He was said to have instructed that all necessary medical facilities should extended to him while on sick bed.
The traditional ruler of Ilobuland, Oba Ashiru Olaniyan, the hometown of late Lt. Gen. Lagbaja, was short of words when a correspondent of the Nigerian News Agency (NAN) visited his palace Tuesday afternoon, shortly after the confirmation of his passing by the Federal Government.
The traditional, who was seen in a deep mourning mood when the NAN correspondent visited his palace in Ilobu, directed the National President of the Ilobu-Asake Development Union, Oluremi Salako, to speak on his behalf.
He said that the town was planning its annual “Ilobu 2024 Day” slated for this coming Saturday (November 9) before the sad news of Lagabaja’s death filtered in.
www.focusmagazineonline.com © November 2024
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