A breakaway faction within ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State, Unity Forum, on Thursday, distanced itself from an alleged romance between Governor Abiola Ajimobi and some of its members in a suspected bid by the governor’s camp to break into its rank and prevent planned mass defection of aggrieved members from APC.
Unity Forum in a statement issued by its spokesman, Mr. Olawale Sadare, described alleged efforts by Ajimobi to buy over some people from its fold as amounting to collosal waste of time and resources which ordinarily should have been channeled to righting some wrongs in the seven years of what he described as deceitful and corrupt leadership in the state.
He said, “We have been inundated with reports of some private individuals being patronized by the governor’s SENACO faction with a view to using them to weaken Unity Forum’s formidable structures through heavy financial inducement and political patronage. This, to us, is another exercise in futility as no unscrupulous elements can reverse the decision of the majority to abandon the sinking boat of APC in Oyo State.
“The resolve was a bottom-up phenomenon facilitated by the unparalleled despotic leadership of an individual, and the same person has never shown remorse for his lack of sincerity and respect for democratic ethos till date. Therefore, believing that by dangling some carrots at few vulnerable persons, if at all they exist in our Forum, in order to compromise them would spell further doom for the sponsor(s) of the plan.
“For us, that day the national leadership of APC rubber stamped a globally acknowledged fraudulent state executive committee backed by Mr Ajimobi marked our final exit from the discredited party and we are using this opportunity to reiterate that we are done with APC while our new political party would be made public early next week.”
The statement added that the Forum expressed its satisfaction with the turn out of event from its teeming faithful and members of the general public since it announced the decision to quit the ruling party while it assured that the quality of aspirants in its fold signalled a better future for the state.
“The spontaneous show of numerical strength by our members across the 33 local government areas as well as overwhelming support received so far from the people of the state including eminent personalities, traditional rulers, organized labour unions, students, among others, shall keep us going until we return good, responsive and purposeful governance to the state in 2019 with the arrays of quality aspirants we are blessed with”, he stated.
