Osun APC Crisis: How I knew Aregbesola was the aggressor, betrayer – Omipidan

Press Secretary to former Osun State Governor and incumbent Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola has described former Interior Minister, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as the aggressor who was responsible for the crisis that rocked the All Progressives Congress ahead of 2022 governorship elections in Osun State....CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING.>>

The reign of Oyetola was characterised with internal wranglings between him and his predecessor, Aregbesola.

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The not-too-cordial relationship led to the formation of a factional group within the APC, the Osun Progressives which was enjoying the backing of Aregbesola.

In his memoir titled Persona Non Grata, Omipidan explained that all his efforts by him and some senior members of the APC including President Bola Tinubu, Chief Bisi Akande and Vice President Kashim Shettima, to resolve the crisis were rebuffed by Aregbesola and his followers.

Omipidan said he concluded that Aregbesola was the aggressor on the day the then Minister came to Osun for his APC membership revalidation exercise.

Omipidan writes, “For whatever reason, many of the young Turks in the Aregbesola’s camp, kept accusing me of fuelling the not-too-cordial relationship between my principal and their benefactor. How? I really do not know.

However, as small as I am, I made my own efforts in ensuring that the two political gladiators make up. I only gave up in 2021, when I became convinced that the ex-interior minister was the aggressor.

Ismail Omipidan speaking at the book presentation in Abuja on January 18
“I came in, in August 2019. By September 2019, I had begun discussing with the late Alhaji Mikail Jare Adebisi, former Deputy Chief of Staff to Oyetola, on how to ensure that Sheikh Muyideen Ajani Bello, assists in bringing both of them together. I travelled to Ibadan to see the revered cleric and I am aware he did his best.

When we did not see the type of result we expected, Alhaji Abdullah Adeyanju Binuyo, former Deputy Chief of Staff to Oyetola and Alhaji Bola Oyebamiji, former Finance Commissioner and Managing Director, National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) and I made another move to get the duo of Sheikh Ahmad Abdul Rahman and Sheikh Ajani Bello involved.

These revered clerics also reached out to both parties. It was after all these that I singlehandedly travelled to Abuja, to see Vice President Kashim Shettima, to impress it on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to step in.

“During the course of our discussion, the Vice President told me when I first raised the issue, he discussed with President Tinubu and the president told him he had requested Chief Bisi Akande, former Osun State Governor and pioneer interim National Chairman of the APC, to step in.

I told the Vice President that it would require the personal intervention of the president to resolve whatever was causing the not- too-cordial relationship between them.

Before I left the Vice President’s residence that night, I extracted a commitment from him that he would see the president and ensure he personally intervened.

“You need to see how elated I was three months later when I got intelligence that the meeting involving the duo and the president would happen in December, 2020, at the residence of Chief Akande. And on December 3, 2020, the meeting indeed held.

At the meeting, from what I later gathered, the two gladiators agreed to work together on the basis that my principal be allowed to run his show without interference. This much was confirmed by the APC in January 2024, when the party accused Aregbesola of reneging on the 2020 agreement.

The APC chairman, Tajudeen Lawal, in a release on Tuesday, January 2, debunked the claim by Aregbesola that an agreement was reached on August 26th, 2021, where it was resolved that his faction be considered the forming the government by giving it one-third of ade appointments in the second term of Oyetola’s administration.

Lawal contended that Aregbesola might be making reference to the agreement he perhaps had with the Adeleke dynasty since the APC did not win the 2022 governorship election in Osun.

He quoted Lawal “To the best of my knowledge, the only agreement endorsed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande happened in December 2020 Chd that Aregbesola reneged on the spirit 20 the letter of the said agreement.

At the end of ind meeting, it was Aregbesola who prepared the content of the resolutions and gave it to our Babe, Chiel Bisi Akande, to vet before it was passed on to the leaders of the party.

And part of the agreement was that there would be an automatic ticket for Oyetola and that while Oyetola would be allowed to face governance without interference from any quarters, the trio of Chief Bisi Akande, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola would lead. guide, coordinate and administer the party as the apex body.

But during the primaries, Aregbesola sponsored Alhaji Moshood Adeoti against Oyetola, contrary to the agreement reached. Oyetola won the election.

The same Aregbesola went to court with Adeoti to challenge the outcome of the primary. He also sponsored 10 different cases in various courts to challenge the nomination of Oyetola as the candidate of the APC.

Before then, he held a parallel congress and pushed unsuccessfully to have a validly-elected chairman of the party replaced with his factional chairman.

As if that was not enough, Aregbesola went ahead to sponsor three different candidates against Oyetola in the governorship election, So, who betrayed the other?”

Anyway, after the December 2020 Ila meeting everything went on well until the APC revalidation exercise in 2021.

The team led by Senator Lawal Shuaibu was in Osun to ensure Chief Akande participated in the exercise. After Chief Akande, the team visited Iragbiji, where Oyetola and the wife were attended to.

Once we got back to Osogbo, my principal put a call through to Aregbesola, informing him that it was his turn to take part in the revalidation exercise. Aregbesola’s response was that the two dates being proposed were not convenient for him.

He however promised that he would give my principal at least 48 hours notice whenever he was ready to make himself available for the exercise. I was alone with my principal on that day.

“Rather than walk his talk, we were in the Government House on February 19, when we saw Aregbesola in Ilesa, vide a live Facebook engagement where he lied that my principal blocked him from carrying out his membership revalidation exercise.

He said several unprintable things about my principal and a new entrant into the party, Senator Iyiola Omisore. That was the day I gave up on Aregbesola.

“I am aware that my principal reluctantly accepted to serve as his Chief of Staff, and I am equally aware that he served him diligently and was brutally loyal to him Not many people would accept the change of role and never laced it with some form of arrogance.

Aregbesola himself admitted publicly that when people say they struggled to plant the seed of the progressive in Osun, there were those that were the real face of the struggle, the unsung heroes who funded the struggle. principal. Imagining now having such a person say “yes, sir” to you.READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>