Oyo State governor, Abiola Ajimobi, may have lost out in the struggle to have absolute control of party structures in the state.
This depends on where the decision of the panel of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), may swing.
The panel last Friday, began work on the reports from the various appeal panels on the conduct of state congresses.
The panel was charged to resolve the logjam in Oyo State between factions loyal to the state governor, Ajimobi and Minister of Communications, Bayo Shittu.
National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, confirmed to Nigerian Tribune that the resolution meeting took place and some big names and their factions were adjudged to be in the wrong.
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Abdullahi confirmed that the congress conducted by the faction headed by the governor was denied an official recognition, with both factions asked to share the party executives.
“We said they should harmonise in Oyo State as a way of finding a political solution,” he stated.
When asked if it was true that the factions were asked to do it 50-50, Abdullahi said he couldn’t exactly remember what the sharing formula was, but that the idea of winner-takes-all would not apply.
Insideoyo.com gathered that the committee may have charged the two factions – SENACO and Unity forum to state working committee membership into two equal halves.
If the committee succeeds in the implementation of the said resolution, it will be a major victory for the Shittu faction, known as Unity Forum.
A source in Ajimobi’s camp argued that only a valid court order could re-arrange the current situation by taking some slots away from the governor.
Abdullahi disagreed, saying that any form of inauguration done on the basis of the ward and local government congresses would amount to an illegality, because it was the state executive that would swear them in, after the NWC would have sworn in the state leaders.
He noted that, for now, NWC had not begun the process of inaugurating the state executive, which allows for harmonisation window.
