– As Party sets up body to investigate anti-party activities
The duo of the former governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun and the incumbent Governor of Ondo State, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu were reportedly barred as they were turned to observers at the last National Executive Council meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which held last Friday at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.
Sources at the crucial meeting revealed that the two top politicians were so treated based on their alleged anti-party activities in the 2019 General Elections.
It will be recalled that while ex-governor Amosun fielded a candidate from the Alliance Peoples Movement (APM) for the governorship election in Ogun State, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State allegedly highjacked and diverted money meant for election in the state for Action Alliance.
We were informed that the National Chairman of APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, had protested the presence of Akeredolu and ex-governor Amosun at the meeting.
Oshiomhole reportedly insisted that Amosun and Akeredolu were not invited since they, like former governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, were still under suspension and that no invitation was extended to them for the meeting.
Sources added that after much pleading, they were later allowed to stay to listen to the allegations against them.
Reliable sources revealed further that the leadership of the party were of the opinion that the likes of Amosun, Akeredolu and Okorocha should be punished for working for some other parties during the last election.
It will be recalled that Amosun fielded Hon. Abdulkadir Adekunle Akinlade from APM as the governorship candidate of Ogun State, when he was still a member of the APC and even contested for the Ogun Central senatorial seat under the APC, which took the open pleading and ward tours by APC leader, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, for him to win.
Amosun, it will also be recalled, went on air for about four hours, where several radio stations hooked to the transmission, to promote Akinlade’s candidature in the election.
The former governor, observers recalled, was adamant to all the pleas of the party to sheat his swords and work for the candidate of the APC in the election, Mr. Dapo Abiodun, but that he remained adamant till the end of the election.
On his part, former governor Rochas Okorocha supported his in-law, Mr. Henry Nwosu as governorship candidate of the Action Alliance, while he contested for a senatorial seat under the APC.
The party was said to have regretted the loss of the Presidential election in Ondo State due to the anti-party activities of the Party Leader and the State Chairman of the Party.
We were informed that the party ratified the suspension of Amosun, Akeredolu, and Rochas Okorocha from the party until when a Committee to be set up submits its report about their activities.
The party, we gathered agreed to subsequently conduct party primaries through direct primaries, and passed a vote of confidence on its chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
