Sunday Akere, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State, has alleged that former governor Rauf Aregbesola undermined the second-term ambitions of his successor, Gboyega Oyetola, to obstruct President Bola Tinubu’s victory in the 2023 presidential election......KINDLY READ THE FULL STORY HERE👈
Akere made this claim during the “Frontliners” interview programme of the Osun State League of Veteran Journalists at the Nigeria Union of Journalists Press Centre in Osogbo on Thursday.
He suggested that Aregbesola has utilised Oyetola as a means to confront his estranged political mentor, President Tinubu, asserting that the former Minister of Interior actively worked against Oyetola’s re-election efforts.
He characterised Aregbesola’s actions as a personal vendetta against Tinubu, stating that Oyetola was merely a tool in Aregbesola’s political strategy.
“The issue is not between Oyetola and Aregbesola. Aregbe wanted to fight his boss, and he saw Oyetola as a soft tool for him to use to fight his boss, that is, the President, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Oyetola, the former governor, didn’t have anything to do with Aregbesola because they didn’t have any issue,” he stated.
Akere, who previously served as a commissioner during Aregbesola’s tenure, noted that Aregbesola has remained unreconciled with Oyetola.
He recounted a recent conversation with a leader of the Omoluabi Progressives, revealing that Aregbesola’s faction had publicly dismissed any allegiance to Tinubu and expressed a willingness to wait decades to assume power, signalling a deep divide within the party.
Akere criticised the national leadership of the APC for its inaction regarding Aregbesola’s alleged anti-party activities, stressing that the local party lacks the authority to discipline someone of Aregbesola’s stature without intervention from the national leadership.
Meanwhile, Akere has disclosed that the party has resolved to make Oyetola its candidate for the 2026 governorship election in Osun, boasting that the party would defeat the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
When contacted for a reaction, one of the close allies of Aregbesola, Sola Fasure, dismissed Akere’s claims, saying, “APC is dead in Osun.”
Fasure said it has become a stock-in-trade for Akere and other supporters of Oyetola to seek relevance and federal jobs by mentioning Aregbesola’s name.
“The point is that APC is invariably dead in Osun, and if you say who is APC now, you will hear Akere, Kola Olabisi, and the party chairman, so there are only three of them remaining in APC in the state. So, one of the ways they find relevance for themselves is to always drag Aregbesola’s name, and so it is not surprising that if any one of them is looking for a job in Abuja, he will drag Aregbesola’s name. They are the ones actually putting the former governor (Oyetola) into crisis because they always make enemies for him and they position themselves in such a way that they turn the former governor into a prisoner of power. Though he was in power, they have made him their own prisoner, and everything is time. All that nonsense he is saying, he is just finding relevance for himself. He is looking for a job through federal appointment or something like that, so one of the ways they do it is to just mention Aregbesola’s name and be seen to be attacking Aregbe. It is a common tactic for all of them,” Fasure posited.