… As APC plots to win Osun guber poll
Fresh perspectives emerged at the weekend as to why Osun State governor, Ademola Adeleke’s rumoured plans to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC) were halted at the last minute.
It was gathered that a group within the APC loyal to the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy and former governor of Osun State, Mr Gboyega Oyetola played an active role in frustrating the governor’s planned movement to the ruling party.
Sources with the APC said a caucus meeting of the APC was allegedly held on Friday night at the minister’s house in Ogo-Oluwa area of Osogbo, where disclosures were made on how Adeleke was prevented from joining the ruling party.
The meeting also deliberated on how the APC would be returned to the Governor’s Office at the Bola Ige House, Abere, Osogbo in November next year.
A source from the meeting informed the newspaper that the main agenda was to map out strategies for the APC to secure an unassailable victory at the governorship election in the state next year, as well as in the other major elections in the country in 2027.
Sources from the meeting asserted that Oyetola appealed to the governorship aspirants to work together and ensure victory for the party before, during and after the governorship election.
Also at the meeting, a top APC national leader reportedly revealed how he personally ensured that Adeleke’s planned defection to APC was unsuccessful. As gathered, the APC leader also said he had assured that President Bola Tinubu would not need Adeleke’s support to win the 2027 presidential election in Osun, and that he would mobilise the “federal might” to guarantee victory for the APC in next year’s governorship election in the state.
The top APC leader, it was gathered, was also quoted as saying that he mobilised efforts to ensure that the court ruling on the local government leadership in the state was not interpreted in favour of the PDP, even as he had assured that allocations to the local government councils in the state would continue to be withheld.
It was also gathered that the meeting recalled that it was the refusal of former President Muhammadu Buhari to allow the use of federal forces during the 2022 governorship election that denied APC of victory. One of the party’s leaders was reported to have assured that the situation would be different in 2026, as the current APC leadership was ready to ensure victory.
Among the strategies being put in place, it was gathered, was the crisis in the state over the withheld local government allocations, a development described by some legal luminaries as an act of executive recklessness.
It would be recalled that several legal opinions had affirmed the Appeal Court ruling to be in favour of the Osun State government. But the APC-led Federal Government disagreed, and has continued to withhold allocations to the state’s local governments, a situation decried by the state government, PDP and several lawyers and activists.
