The All Progressives Congress leaders who organised parallel congresses which produced separate executives in some states are planning a mass defection if the Odigie-Oyegun-led National Working Committee of the party fails to address their grievances.
Investigations by SUNDAY PUNCH correspondents in the affected states showed that while some state factions of the APC were perfecting strategies to dump the party, others preferred to remain within the system and work for other parties’ candidates.
In Oyo State, the Unity Forum, largely made up of the late governor Lam Adesina’s loyalists, Adebayo Shittu’s group, some aggrieved loyalists of Governor Abiola Ajimobi and those who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party and Accord Party, have vowed to defect en masse soon.
The spokesperson for the group, Wasiu Olatubosun, said although the group had approached the court to seek redress, arrangements were being made to pull out of the party in case the state government manipulates the court process.
He said, “We are aware that the governor and his people have been saying the judiciary is an annex of the executive and that we cannot defeat him there.
“This group is not politically inconsequential. If he has the judiciary in his pocket and believes that everyone has a price, he cannot control who we associate with. We have a plan B.
“We are aware that some people will stay back in the party because they hold one position or the other. What matters is for us to go for a credible platform where we can prove that we are not inconsequential. We proved to him that we are relevant during the by-election in Ibarapa East last week.
“The government spent almost N100m on that by-election but the party candidate lost by a wide margin. There is an election pattern that was jettisoned and that was the reason for the failure.”
