Osun APC Reunites for Election

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

The state executive of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State has stated that it has successfully re-united after a robustly contested July 20 primary election to pick a governorship standard bearer for the party.

The state party Chairman, Prince Gboyega Famodun, who stated this in Osogbo, the state capital, yesterday, said: “Frayed nerves have been calmed, dissenting members of the executive returned to their duty posts and the body is again united under the leadership of its chairman.”

In the heat of the primary, when the party national executive opted for the direct primary model to elect its governorship standard bearer for the state, the executive was apparently fractured with a handful of its members purported to have suspended the chairman and the Secretary, Alhaji Razaq Salinshile.

Consequently, a damage control reconciliation effort by elders of the party successfully re-united the dissenting members with the state executive at the weekend.

“We can now inform party members and our teeming supporters in the state and beyond that the APC executive in Osun State is back, fully united in business and reinvigorated to pursue our collective goal of decisively winning the governorship election in September as a united force.

“Sometimes in presidential democracies worldwide, primaries are usually very contentious and can even create divisions, but they hardly ever end up breaking the party,” Famodun said.

According to the chairman, “the heat and squabble generated during the process was usually calmed down as the party heals its bruises and restores unity for the real contest-in this case, the governorship election-which is less than eight weeks away.

“We are now eminently positioned to go into the contest with renewed strength and determination not only to defeat all opposition but also to ensure that the progress which Osun State has experienced in the last 90 months will continue.”

He therefore called on all members, friends and supporters of the APC “to get seriously involved in the efforts to keep the state on course for the peace, progress and development that are the legacies the state Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, who will be handing over to his successor.”