Some factional members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State, known as ‘The Osun Progressive’ (TOP), on Tuesday, held a protest in Osogbo, the state capital, calling for the removal of the state party chairman, Gboyega Famodun.
The aggrieved APC members also called for the restructuring of the party.
The protesters called for the restructuring of APC in the state following the party’s defeat in the July 16 governorship election.
The party members carried various placards with inscriptions such as ‘Osun APC Needs Restructuring, Famodun Must Go’, ‘Save Osun APC from Total Collapse’, ‘Aregbesola is the Soul of APC/Progressive Politics in Osun’, among others.
The protesters, who marched through Odi-Olowo, Olaiya, Ogo-Oluwa, and protected by armed security operatives, stormed the Osun State House of Assembly complex where they delivered a letter to the Speaker of the Assembly, Timothy Owoeye.
Addressing newsmen, the factional youth leader, Abosede Oluwaseun, said the party needed to be restructured from unit, ward, local government, and state levels for it to be united and formidable ahead of the 2023 general election.
Oluwaseun said: “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 issues, to summarise them, boil down on glaring mismanagement of the party by Gov. Gboyega Oyetola and the party chairman, Gboyega Famodun.
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“The chairman has totally demonstrated lack of capacity to manage the party and this reflects in the result of the July 16 governorship election.
“As a chairman of a ruling party going for election, Famodun didn’t consider it essential to resolve disputes and crises that dotted all the local governments in the state.
“Before the governorship election and till now, there is no understanding, cooperation, unity and cohesion in the party.”
She added that their demand included the dissolution of the party executive at all levels in the state, and the setting up of an independent caretaker committee to oversee the restructuring of the party, among others.
The Speaker of the Osun Assembly, who addressed the protesters, assured them that necessary steps would be taken to make sure the party is united and formidable.
Reacting to the protest, the Osun APC Chairman described the demonstration as “shameful, callous, and wicked”.
Famodun, in a statement issued by his Media Adviser, Kola Olabisi, said that the protest was misplaced and inconsiderate.
He alleged that the APC factional members worked against the success of Governor Gboyetola Oyetola at the polls.
“Assuming but not conceding that there are challenges within the party, the protesters should be told that they lack moral right to either suggest or effect any likely solution as it is on record that they massively and collectively worked against Gov. Oyetola, the APC governorship candidate, in the just-concluded election in line with the series of their threat.
“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,” the APC chairman stated.
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