Some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State on Saturday rejected the adoption of consensus leaders across the 332 wards in the state.
The members, who are loyalists of the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, alleged that they were excluded from the process.
The exercise went smoothly in the 35 wards of the Osun West Senatorial District as APC members who were led by one Barr. Gbadegesin Adedeji adopted the consensus option in the election of ward executives.
However, the former Speaker of Osun State House of Assembly, Najeem Salam, insisted that the executives were imposed on party members.
Salam, who is one of Aregbesola’s loyalists in Osun State, alleged that there was a political crisis in the state.
He said: “The national caretaker committee does not set up the ward congress committee. The government in power has been cajoling people, harassing party members that are not in support of what they are doing within the party.
Unfortunately, those that came to the state for sales of form are incommunicado. We only saw it online that they came for stakeholders’ meetings. People like me and some other eminent persons in the party were not involved.
“How would you know the stakeholders? Why would people that want to go to an election against another party in 2022 be afraid of the election within the party?
“With what the present administration is doing with the issue of ward congress, it seems they are not ready for the election in 2022.”
However, the Chairman of the APC National Congress Committee, Gbenga Elegbeleye, said the exercise went well.
“Members conducted themselves in a very free and fair atmosphere; officers were elected in our presence. We saw pure consensus. They all agreed that these are the officers we want to handle the affairs of the party in our wards. There is no crisis about that,” he said.
Also, the state Governor, Gboyega Oyetola, said the congresses were very peaceful across the state.
