The controversy surrounding the executive committee of the Ogun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been finally laid to rest with the recognition of the group loyal to Governor Dapo Abiodun of the state, led by Chief Yemi Sanusi as the authentic committee.
Recall that a group loyal to former governor Ibikunle Amosun, which held a parallel state congress of the party in the state, when it held across the country on Saturday October 16, 2021 had claimed to be the authentic one with Mr. Derin Adebiyi as chairman.
But in a statement released by the state chapter of the party dated Thursday February 3, 2022 and signed by it’s Publicity Secretary, Mr. Tunde Oladunjoye, the party called on some of its members said to be loyal to Amosun to return fully into the party and work assiduously for its success in the next general elections.
This call came just as the party, at the national level, is set to inaugurate in Abuja today, Chief Yemi Sanusi as Ogun State Chairman, alongside other party chairmen for the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The party, while calling on “aggrieved members to return home fully,” described the inauguration of Chief Yemi Sanusi as the “supremacy of the party and confirmation of the wishes of overwhelming majority of APC members in Ogun State as freely expressed during its State Congress held on June 16, 2021 at the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abeokuta.”
The press statement reads in part:
“We have always maintained that the party is supreme and nobody, no matter how highly placed, is above the party. There are laid down rules and processes for party congresses; anyone or group which goes against the procedures, no matter how loud their noise is, no matter how long their propaganda is; cannot gain from illegalities.”
“Today’s event in Abuja confirming the authenticity of Chief Yemi Sanusi as Ogun State APC Chairman is a good opportunity for the “petitioners” to sheathe their swords and return fully to the mainstream of the party. Our party leader and Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, has always preached and practiced the policy of inclusiveness, which has even attracted juggernauts from other political parties into APC since 2019.
“Again, and for the umpteenth time, we call on this splinter group to return fully to the party and start attending meetings at various levels of the party in the build-up to the next general elections. Any repeat of previous acts of disloyalty, anti-party activities, defection and gang-up, which could not stop the election of Prince Dapo Abiodun in 2019, is also bound to fail; more so, now that the party is stronger and more populated by experienced grassroots political heavyweights in Ogun politics.
“We urge this set of people to make a detour from their serial petitioning and learn from the prolonged crisis of the State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which has been decimated and reduced to a paper-tiger because like the Bourbon tribe of France, PDP members in Ogun have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing.”
