Osun APC Members Protest, Call For Party Restructuring, Removal Of Chairman

Members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State, on Tuesday, called for the removal of the party chairman, Prince Gboyega Famoodu for alleged mismanagement of the party resources.

The members who trooped in large numbers to the streets of Osogbo, the state capital in the early hours of the day also called for the Party restructuring saying, Famoodu lacks all that it takes to deliver the state for the party in the forthcoming general elections scheduled for 2023.

Armed with placards with different inscriptions that read: “Osun APC Needs Restructuring”, Famodun Must Go, Save Osun APC From Total Collapse”, Sack Famodun, Aregbesola Is The Soul Of APC/Progressive Politics In Osun”, There Is No Life In Osun APC Again!”, 2023: Asiwaju May Lose Osun With Famodun As APC Chairman”, among others.

They stormed, Osogbo from all the 30 local governments areas of the State and sang different songs while in an orderly formidable group to register their grievances on the party chairman for still administering the affairs of the party in the state.

They however marched to the state House Of Assembly Complex where they delivered a letter for call for his removal to the state Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hon. Timothy Owoeye with affirmation that, the party under Famodun could not deliver victory in the 2023 general elections.

While addressing members, a chieftain of the party, Comrade Abosede Oluwaseun, said “the party needs to be restructured from the unit, ward, local government and state level for it to be united and formidable ahead of the coming general elections.

“With conscious, sincere and objective analysis of the outcome of the governorship election, we discovered that the electoral loss is not only self-induced by the party’s administrators, it also reflects party issues which had been raised by concerned minds in the recent past.

“The party issues, which are unattended to till the present moment, regrettably cost our party the electoral victory and as concerned progressives, we felt the necessity to inform you that it is not safe to approach the 2023 general elections with the same paper-tiger party under the leadership of Prince Gboyega Famodun, the State Chairman of the APC in Osun State.

“The issues, to summarise them, boil down on glaring mismanagement of the party by Governor Gboyega Oyetola and the Party Chairman, Gboyega Famodun. The Chairman has totally demonstrated a lack of capacity to manage the party and this reflects in the result of the July 16 governorship election.”

He however maintained that, In order to address this emergent clear and present danger, “we unequivocally make the following demands: The dissolution of all party structures from the unit to the state level.

“The setting up of an independent caretaker committee to oversee the restructuring of the party and turn it into an election-winning machine again.

“Composition of an all-inclusive party executive structures from wards to state level within 90 days; and

“The redistribution of the state and federal legislative tickets in an all-inclusive manner to reflect true membership structure and tendencies.

“This, in our humble opinion is the way forward from the logjam we found ourselves in the APC and unless we urgently take these steps, we stand the grave risk of suffering worse consequences in the coming elections.”

Addressing the protesters, the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hon. Timothy Owoeye assured the party members of the necessary steps to make the party united and formidable.

Owoeye said: “I want to assure you of a fact that every necessary step to be taken for our party to be united and formidable to continue to rule and win future elections would be taken.”

In his own reaction, the party chairman, Prince Famodu, condemned the protest he attributed to the handiwork of the interior minister, Mr Rauf Aregbesola and described it as shameful and wicked.

In a statement by his spokesperson, Mr Kola Olabisi, the chairman maintained that “One would have thought that the appropriate place for them to canvass for the restructuring of any party is Senator Ademola Adeleke’s Ede country home whom they voted for with flaunted pride.”

“If I may ask, at what point did it occur to you that the political party that you had abandoned for about three years which you have been working against needs restructuring?

“Did the Adeleke Dynasty not fund your series of campaigns of calumny against Oyetola and the leadership of the party at the Aregbesola Campaign Office where you converge every Thursday with the task of scrambling to outdo one another in lampooning Oyetola’s administration and the leadership of the party?

“If you all have a conscience, I will enjoin you to do individualistic soul-searching and ask yourselves if you are worthy to be called the members of our party again by your actions and inactions which partly contributed to our temporary loss of the Osun State governorship election.

“Was it after you were rebuffed by the Pathfinder group faction leadership of the PDP which pungently refused you patronages after the governorship election as it was witnessed by the composition of its Transition Committee membership that you thought of coming back into the party with a sing-song of restructuring?

“It is, however, pertinent to state here that there is a free entry and free exit in any political party in which memberships are bonded by common interests and ideals.

“Since politics is a game of number and the more the merrier; continuous membership of our party is not foreclosed to any genuine member whose interest would not be counter-productive to the interest of our party as you cannot be an outsider and be canvassing for the restructure of the party,” Famodun explained.

Tribune