A chieftain of the party, Chief Olufemi Olaore, made this known while fielding questions today on BOTTOMLINE a political programme on IBR 92.5fm Ibadan.
OYOINSIGHT.COM recalls that Olaore was one of those who signed a petition forwarded to the Mai Buni-led national caretaker committee of the party wherein a “vote of no confidence” was passed on the Oke-led State Working Committee of the party about a forthnight ago.
Admitting that there is crisis in Oyo APC, Olaore said the party in the State is going through a rebirth and renewal. “We have been in Power but lost in 2019, that is extremely bad. So, we have just come to terms with losing Power to another party. We are going through a period of rebirth, reshapening, renewal and re-engineering looking at what went wrong so as to forestall a repeat”.
When asked what informed the passage of a vote of no confidence on Oke-led State Working Committe, the former senatorial aspirant said “you can’t do things the way you have done it and expect the result to change. If you put garri and hot water together, you will get “eba” not “amala”. We need to ensure that those who are at the saddle when we lost, whatever may be their contribution, we need to look into it. Whether they went asleep, whether they did’nt perceive things right, whether they were short-sighted, whether they were not innovative enough, we need to look into all these things and make changes where necessary and that was why we came together and said from this point onward, we need to have a cohesive, unified, strong party.”
On the submission that many of the disgruntled members of the party who want Akin Oke to vacate his seat are inconsequential in the party, he took a swipe at those peddling such idea.
“Ttat is a very wrong assertion. I have always been in APC. I have always been in the Progressives since the days of UPN which is the mother of the Action Group.”
“What I want to correct is that it is not only nine of us who signed the communique passing a vote of no confidence on Akin Oke who want him out. No! It is just the authorized signatories that signed. The platform has over well a thousand that cut across the State with each of them anchoring several local governnents. They want progress for the party. They want the party to win and they are convinced that the same hands that made us to lose, cannot be the same hands that will make us to win the next election”.
He posited that if Oyo APC does not get it acts together, dislodging the PDP any time soon may be an herculean task considering the fact that Seyi Makinde is redefining governance in Oyo State at the moment.
“Another governnents is entrenching itself day in, day out. When we had the power of incumbency, we lost. They were the ones there so, that is what they are saying that some of us have to be pragmatic, we have to be forward looking, we have to act now. We can’t go to the next election with the same mindset that made us to lose.
“Some of them were there when we lost. They had eight years presence and we couldn’t win another term and continuity which we wanted, it means they have either been compromised or weakened” he said.
He noted that with the achievements of Alao-Akala, he remains the best person to lead the party.
