…Urges them to cover their faces in shame
A socio-political group, Osun Shall Rise Again, OSRA, has berated a former Osun Governor and Interior Minister, Rauf Aregbesola, for accusing Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of betraying the All Progressives Congress, APC , just because he reviewed some of the policies that made the party almost lost the Governorship election in 2018.
Osun Defender, a local community Newspaper owned and financed by Aregbesola, had published a story “REVEALED: How And When Oyetola Abandoned APC Programmes To Please Omisore,” where it claimed that the policy review carried out by Oyetola amounted to abandoning party’s Programme to please Osun former deputy governor, Otunba Iyiola Omisore.
But OSRA described the claim as not only untrue but one calculated to mislead Nigerians, especially those who live outside Osun who may not be conversant with the realities on the ground.
In a statement issued by the Media Office of the group, OSRA noted that contrary to the claim by Aregbesola and his co-travellers, all the issues that reduced APC’s popularity and made it struggle to win the governorship in the build-up to the 2018 governorship poll have all been addressed by Oyetola to the admiration of Osun people and have endeared the party to the people once more.
“From abolition of half salary to reversal of single uniform and revert to old names of the various schools, among others, Oyetola has won the hearts of the people,” the group said, insisting that how such action amounted to betraying the party beats their imagination.
“Recall that during the governorship debate, when Omisore was not even in the picture, after Oyetola practically struggled to defend the single uniform policy, he promised to take another look at it if the people wanted it to be looked into if he became the governor.
“Again, Aregbesola, had also hinted that he expected ‘Ileri to do things differently from him.’ And that if there were things he did not do well, the governor would liaise with the party to do it correctly. Or did Aregbesola also meet with Omisore before saying that ?
“Were the reports from Mr. Governor’s Thank You Tour and UK DFID Needs Assessment exercise were also influenced by Omisore?
“Rather than try to vilify the Governor, Osun Defender and Aregbesola should cover their faces in shame if they cannot commend Oyetola for helping to salvage the image of the party in the State by being more responsible in the governance the State even to the admiration of the opposition in the state.
“Everybody knows that Oyetola was not in the know of how APC reached out to Omisore in the build-up to the re-run election. I think Oyetola should be commended for managing Omisore up till the time he formally joined the party,” the group said.
