More than 75 per cent of the aggrieved members of the Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, the Unity Forum, have agreed to return and work for the success of APC in the state, especially during the 2019 general elections.
Governor Abiola Ajimobi disclosed that after a close to 3 hours meeting with the leadership of the party in the state at the party’s Oke Ado, Ibadan secretariat.
According to Ajimobi, the national leadership of APC has also promised to consider the grievances of the Unity Forum following the reports submitted by relevant committees set up by the party.
He said “The meeting is about reconciliation. It’s about talking to our elders; it’s about party politics generally. There will always be grievances, there will always be conflicts but in politics just like all other human endeavours, there are conflicts and resolutions and we will continue to have that.
“The level of success of the efforts I will rank it at more than 75 percent. Some of our people who were aggrieved are coming back. Some people are aggrieved, rightly so, some people are aggrieved wrongly so, but the most important thing is that we must recognize that in all human endeavours there are bound to be conflicts and there are bound to be resolutions.
“As leaders of the party, we must continue to accommodate, to give and take and we dont want winner takes all. The battle has been won and now let us reconcile. There are those that no matter what you do, they will not reconcile, no matter what you do, they are just irreconcilliable. And there are those that with little efforts they will reconcile with you and that is the purpose of the meeting.”
The elders and enlarged stakeholders who met at the Oke Ado state party secretariat considered the reports of the various committees set up from all the geo political zones and agreed that restoring the party to its better days is almost completed.
Ajimobi, while addressing the press after the closed door meeting assured that the crisis of division rocking the ruling party in the state will end soon, noting that the reconciliatory move to broker peace between the two warring factions has reached 75 per cent success.
The meeting, which began at 1:35 and ended at about 3:50pm, was held behind closed doors, and was attended by leaders of the party from the seven geo-political divisions for the state including, Ibadan City, Ibadan Less City, Oyo, Igbomoso, Ibarapa, Oke-Ogun 1 and Oke-Ogun 2.
Those at the meeting included a former governor of the state, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala; deputy governor, Otunba Moses Adeyemo; Speaker of the House of Assembly, Mr. Olagunju Ojo; the state’s APC chairman, Chief Akin Oke; as well as serving and former members of House of Representatives.
Similarly, Dr Azeez Olatunde, the Publicity Secretary, said that the report brought by the leaders in the various zones of the state.
He stated that the governor commended the leaders and accepted the recommendations of they made at the meeting.
“The leaders have been able to present their demands to the party and leader has assured them of readiness to implement them. The party would look into the grievances of those with genuine grievances. The report submitted revealed that 75 percent of the aggrieved members have returned to the party,” he said.
Olatunde stated that quantum of grievances during the last congresses has been watered down, assuring that the governor would soon begin to implement the recommendations.
