The visit of the National Reconciliation Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC), led by former governor of Nasarawa State, Senator Abdullahi Adamu to Ogun State on Friday January 7, 2022, appeared to have put paid to the controversy trailing the last year state Congress of the party in the state.
Recall that the Ogun State APC had been divided into two with former governor Ibikunle Amosun claiming to be in control of the party with Mr. Derin Adebiyi as the acclaimed chairman of the party in the state.
However, the authentic state congress, supported by Governor Dapo Abiodun of the state and which was witnessed by the representatives of the national body of the party and officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), produced Chief Yemi Sanusi as Chairman along with other members of the executive.
An insider in the party, who pleaded not to be named, exclusively spoke to Ogun News Express about the visit of the APC National Reconciliation Committee to Abeokuta, the state capital.
“The Committee came with Lagos security men and vehicles, and they went straight to see Governor Dapo Abiodun and they told him that they received petitions on the state congress held last year.
“The Committee members said that the first thing they normally do in such instance is to see the Governor, and then, they will go and see the petitioner to listen to their complaints.
“We got there around 11am. So, the commmitee went to see the group of Senator Ibikunle Amosun, who mobilised several people to the venue as if they wanted to have a congress.
“Infact, we chastised our people that they should have told us that such thing would happen, even our people from Abeokuta alone were enough to outnumber the crowd Amosun paraded. This was one of the reasons Amosun group told the committee that they had 80% of the people in the party,” he said.
The source narrated further that the committee later met the party members loyal to the Governor and members of the authentic exco of the party at the Presidential Lodge in Abeokuta.
He stated that there was an introduction starting from the Governor, who told them that Ogun State had five civilian governors so far since its creation and that one, Chief Bisi Onabanjo had died, but that his daughter, Bukola was with them at the meeting.
According to him, Governor Abiodun said that out of the remaining four that are alive three were at the meeting, including Chief Olusegun Osoba, Otunba Gbenga Daniel and the incumbent Governor Dapo Abiodun.
“It was only former governor Ibikunle Amosun that was not at the meeting. Past deputy governors, past speakers of the state house of assembly were all there.
“Amosun has the three senators from the state with him; Amosun, representing Ogun Central, Senator Tolu Odebiyi from Ogun West and Senator Lekan Mustapha from Ogun East.
“But for the House of Representatives, we have nine from Ogun State, eight are with us, one is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but seven were physically present while one was out of the country..
“We initially had seven around, one was away in the United States of America, but he came in before the Committee members left. We had all the 26 members of the Ogun State House of Assembly, and chairmen of all the 20 local governments in the state.
“They introduced the members of the Reconciliation Committee. It was now time for the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Abdullahi Adamu to observe protocols. He recognised the “great chairman of our great party, Chief Yemi Sanusi.” With this, there was a loud noise.
“Adamu said that they came as National Reconciliation Committee of the party, and that Ogun was not the only state they had come.
“He said that the usual practice was that when they receive a petition like that, they will see the state Governor and brief him before going to see the complainant “to know why they are crying. For someone that is crying, we have to do palliatives to stop them from crying.”
“When he was speaking, we felt that the camp of Senator Ibikunle Amosun should understand what was happening. Members of the press were there also.
“The committee said that they were in the state to listen to the complaints of the two groups. At this juncture, they asked members of the press to leave, while we waited,” he said.
The insider narrated further that the committee told them about the complaints of the group of Amosun, and that he claimed that they had 80% of the party members, while the authentic group had 20%.
He however, revealed that the committee members felt intimidated by the caliber of people that the Dapo Abiodun group had and who were seated at the meeting.
He said: “we had a whole lot of people; seven of the eight members of the House of Representatives from the state. Where you have one senator, you have three members of house of representatives.
“They now brought a screen and projector and the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Mr. Shuaib spoke after that. The man is very sound.
“Shuaib spoke about the type of person Senator Amosun is. He said Amosun was given governorship ticket by Chief Olusegun Osoba, who he said did due to much pressure. Then Governor Dapo Abiodun said he was among the people that said that Osoba should give him the ticket.
“He now said that when it was time for Congress prior to the 2019 elections, the Osoba group bought forms, yet Amosun didn’t allow the congress to hold.
“They went to court, but the party in their wisdom felt that the court could affect them in the future, they dissolved the exco and appointed a caretaker committee.
“The committee subsequently organised the primaries that produced the Governor.
“The same Committee produced Senators Tolu Odebiyi and Lekan Mustapha as Senatorial candidates.
“Shortly after that, because the party did not pick his governorsip candidate, Hon. Abdulkadir Akinlade, Amosun came up with another political party, the Allied Peoples Congress (APM) and made Akinlade governorsip candidate.
“When the president came to Ogun State for campaigns, the Amosun group removed all the posters of the APC including that of the Governorship candidate for the party; Dapo Abiodun and there were so much issues in the state. They beat our people, they showed where people were stoning President Muhammadu Buhari with pure water sachets, when he came to campaign in the state on the screen.
“They showed how he brought his governorsip candidate, Akinlade to the stadium and they were raising APM posters and banners. They said they didn’t want Amosun to win his senatorial election, but that they had to concede because of the presidential election that took place simultaneously with the National Assembly election.
“Shuaib said that even at that, a lot of people did not vote for Amosun and that he had the least votes and the smallest margin because people didn’t want to vote for him.
“The Chief of staff recalled that immediately after the Presidential/National Assembly election, when Amosun wanted to address the people, he campaigned for the APM and urged the people to vote for his candidate in the governorship election. They showed everything on the screen.
“It was also stated that the Ambassador from the state, Sarafa Ishola, who is now representing Nigeria in tbe United Kingdom, was the Director General of the APM candidate in the state governorsip election. They said even the minister from the state was a member of the APM and that yet they stayed with the party.
“After showing these clips, Governor Dapo Abiodun said that Amosun is his personal friend. He said Amosun and Gbenga Daniel conspired against him, when he wanted to contest as governor.
“Dapo Abiodun group then said that their own prayer was that the party should expel Amosun and his group.
” Thereafter OGD spoke and said it was the first time the past governors of the state would come together and sit at a roundtable, that it had never happened before.
“He told Governor Dapo Abiodun that he has a lot of talents, but that he was not making use of them. You can imagine the caliber of people in the hall, the people that matter most in APC in the state.
“May be the Governor needs to adjust now. The Chairman of the National Reconciliation Committee, Senator Adamu was the Governor of Nasarawa state, when Osoba was Ogun State governor. Adamu was the Director General of the Governors Forum then. Adamu was also governor during the time of Gbenga Daniel from 2003 to 2007 for his own second term.
“On his part, Former governor Osoba said that how could all of them seated be be wrong against Amosun, that it was not possible.
“Adamu spoke after this, and he said that he normally asked his members to ask questions after such meetings, but they all said that they didn’t have any question for us.
“They were apparently satisfied with our explanations and what they saw in the clips. That was how the meeting ended.’
