Ray of hope shone on Monday on the crisis rocking the Oyo State chapter of the All Progressive Congress as the party leaders, elders and other relevant stakeholders from the seven geo political zones of the state met to review the reconciliation efforts and agreed that it is more than 75 percent successful.
The elders and enlarged stakeholders who met at the Oke Ado state party secretariat considered the reports of the various committees set up from all the geo political zones and agreed that restoring the party to its better days is almost completed.
Governor Abiola Ajimobi, while addressing the press after a closed door meeting that lasted for over three hours assures that the crisis of division rocking the ruling party in the state will end soon, noting that the reconciliatory move to broker peace between the two warring factions has reached 75 per cent success.
Recall that the party has been divided into two following the recently conducted ward, local government and state congresses of the party in the state. A splinter group known as Oyo APC Unity Forum emerged and held parallel congresses and produced parallel executives at the local government and state levels as well.
Notable members of the unity forum are Minister of Communication, Alhaji Adebayo Shittu; former Chief of Staff to Governor Ajimobi, Prof Adeolu Akande; and former chairman of Ibadan North West, Dr. Wasiu Olatubosun.
The meeting, which began at 1:35 and ended at about 3:50pm, was held behind closed doors, and was attended by leaders of the party from the seven geo-political divisions for the state including, Ibadan City, Ibadan Less City, Oyo, Ogbomoso, Ibarapa, Oke-Ogun 1 and Oke-Ogun 2.
Those at the meeting included a former governor of the state, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala; deputy governor, Otunba Moses Adeyemo; Speaker of the House of Assembly, Mr. Olagunju Ojo; the stateโs APC chairman, Chief Akin Oke; as well as serving and former members of House of Representatives.
Ajimobi stated that more than 75 percent of the aggrieved members that left the party have agreed to return and work for the success of APC in the state, especially during the 2019 general elections. He added that the national leadership of APC has also promised to consider the grievances of the Unity Forum following the reports submitted by relevant committees set up by the party.
He said โThe meeting is about reconciliation. Itโs about talking to our elders; itโs about party politics generally. There will always be grievances, there will always be conflicts but in politics just like all other human endeavours, there are conflicts and resolutions and we will continue to have that.
โThe level of success of the efforts I will rank it at more than 75 percent. Some of our people who were aggrieved are coming back. Some people are aggrieved, rightly so, some people are aggrieved wrongly so, but the most important thing is that we must recognize that in all human endeavours there are bound to be conflicts and there are bound to be resolutions.
โAs leaders of the party, we must continue to accommodate, to give and take and we don’t want winner takes all. The battle has been won and now let us reconcile. There are those that no matter what you do, they will not reconcile, no matter what you do, they are just irreconcilable. And there are those that with little efforts they will reconcile with you and that is the purpose of the meeting.โ
Similarly, Dr Azeez Olatunde, the Publicity Secretary, said that the report brought by the leaders in the various zones of the state.
He stated that the governor commended the leaders and accepted the recommendations of they made at the meeting.
โThe leaders have been able to present their demands to the party and leader has assured them of readiness to implement them. The party would look into the grievances of those with genuine grievances. The report submitted revealed that 75 percent of the aggrieved members have returned to the party,โ he said.
Olatunde stated that quantum of grievances during the last congresses has been watered down, assuring that the governor would soon begin to implement the recommendations.
