The Minister of Communications, Barrister Abdulraheem Adebayo Shittu, during the weekend alleged that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders at the national level were forced to accept those who are not qualified as executive members of the party.
Shittu, who lost his bid to get the gubernatorial ticket of the party in Oyo state last year, made this disclosure while speaking on a live radio programme monitored by DAILY POST, tagged ‘South West political circuit’ on Fresh FM Ibadan.
The Saki-born lawyer, who was disqualified to contest the APC primary due to his failure to observe the one year mandatory National Service conducted by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), accused the outgoing Governor of the state, Mr. Abiola Ajimobi of foisting the current executives of the party in the state on the party and the people.
The minister, who has been having a running battle with Ajimobi since the merger of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and All Nigeria Peoples Party to form the ruling APC, which became the major opposition political party and later won the Presidential election and produce President Muhammau Buhari as President in 2015, alleged that Ajimobi is no doubt a ‘dictator’ and ‘betrayal’.
He, however, added that he and other like minds in the party; are challenging the composition of the party executives in court.
Shittu, who maintained that the process to rebuild the party in the state will start soon, after the party’s defeat in the March 9 governorship and house of assembly elections, insisted that he and members of the Unity Forum, a breakaway faction of APC, will retrieve the party from predators.
He said, “Let me recall, during the congresses in Oyo state, we had two congresses; Two factions of our party held parallel congresses.
“The governor’s faction and unity forum faction, which has members four times that of the governor’s faction. Our party leaders at the national level by force accepted those who are not qualified as party executives.
“Eventually what happened started from there. We are in court challenging to know the legally recognised executives of the party. The unity forum will certainly ensure that justice is done in the area of party congresses.
“That is what we are challenging, the emergence of the current executives. They have to be true to themselves but for Ajimobi they will not be there.
“Governor Ajimobi did what he did so that he could use them. He foisted on the party and the people the people who will continue to do his bidding.
“Clearly Ajimobi is a dictator, a betrayer; clearly everything you could think of. Now that he has gone, we have to rescue all of those people away from him.
“Our lawyer unjustly terminated the cases from court, I have instructed lawyers from my chambers to appoint for the revisit of those cases and I have all the support of all members of the unity forum to do that. We are all waiting to collaborate in ensuring that we retrieve our party from predators.
“We will bring everybody on board, we will retrieve our party; we will start soonest by the grace of God. They are in APC, you will have to show me when they resigned their membership of APC.”
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