Ogun 2015: Osoba’s defection, victory not negotiable - Ajayi Uncertainty now pervades the political atmosphere of Ogun state following the purported defection of the former Governor of the state and leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Aremo Olusegun Osoba to the Social Democratic Party SDP). But some of his associates claimed they are yet to move to the party and could not comment on whether Chief Osoba has defected to the SDP. But the national body of the APC said that it was sad to hear that Chief Osoba has defected to another political party. The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said that the news of Osoba’s defection was shocking to them. He stressed that though the party is yet to clarify the true position of the purported defection, they are would try to cushion the effect it may cause if found out that it was real. He said the party was still making investigation on the matter. Also the Deputy Governor of Ogun State, who later spoke said that as far as some of them were concerned, they would be in the party where their leader Chief Osoba is, but he did not clarify whether it was the APC or the speculated SDP. The feud between Amosun and Osoba has been on for almost a year now over who controls the party structure in Ogun state. Osoba had accused Amosun of dominating all the political positions in this government without considering others who worked for him in 2011. The allegations had severally been denied by Amosun and at a stage the traditional rulers and opinion leaders of the state had to intervene in the matter. The particular meeting which was believed had settled the matter was at the instance of the Awujale of Ijebu Ode, Oba SikiruAdetona when Amosun was asked to apologize to Osoba. When contacted some APC members said the defection of Osoba would not affect the APC, but some of them were of the opinion that the party would work hard so that it won’t have any effect in its fortunes in 2015. Also Hon Peter Ajayi, The National Coordinator of the Salvage Group, the professional arm of the APC, said It is a very bad development for the party, adding that no party would be happy experiencing such at this critical period. Ajayi maintained that the defection of the Deputy Governor and other national political office holders has worsened the situation, adding that what is clear and not negotiable is the victory of the party come 2015. “Governor Amosun’s landmark and laudable achievements will speak for him. He is loved by the people of Ogun state. No government has brought development as currently seen and witnessed in Ogun state like the APC led government. Those that defected are individuals. They didn’t defect to any popular political party. They must have defected because of selfish interests which probably could not be met by the governor. Their defection has not diminished the popularity of the Governor and the party at large in the state. Meanwhile Amosun’s media assistant, Mr. Sola Balogun said those in Osoba’s group is not fair to Governor Amosun, because he (Amosun) had done everything humanly possible to please them. He said that the letter written by the Deputy Governor to the Governor was an indication that they were already prepared to move to another political party.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 18:42:49 +0000