Aregbesola Worked Against Tinubu, APC In Osun -Akere

A former Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Sunday Akere, who served during Rauf Aregbesola’s first term as governor of Osun State, has advised Aregbesola to issue an apology for allegedly working against President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC). Akere made this suggestion on Monday in Osogbo.

Akere’s advice comes in response to Aregbesola’s statements made on Sunday during a reception held in his honor by concerned Muslim scholars and clerics in Oyo town, Oyo State.

During the event, Aregbesola expressed his gratitude to President Tinubu and former President Muhammadu Buhari for his political achievements and success.

Reacting, Akere claimed that Aregbesola worked against the APC’s interests during the presidential election on February 25 and the gubernatorial election in Osun State on July 16, 2022. In both elections, the Peoples Democratic Party emerged victorious over the APC in Osun State.

Akere urged Aregbesola to apologize for his alleged anti-party activities. He suggested that after the apology, Aregbesola and his supporters should appear before the committee led by Prof. Isaac Adewole, which was established to reposition the APC in the state.

“Aregbesola and his supporters worked against Tinubu in the presidential poll. They only changed their tune after the ex-Lagos governor had emerged victorious at the poll.

“Everybody knew Ogbeni Aregbesola and all his followers engaged in anti-party activities in the 2022 governorship election and all the series of elections we had in 2023, and there is nobody that will engage in anti-party activities that will not be punished appropriately for it.

“We expect him and his followers to apologise, appear before the Professor Adewole repositioning committee and state their own side of the matter. We expect them to do what is needful and after then, the party will, maybe, accept their apology.

“When Ogbeni was here as governor in Osun, he always said that after God, it was Asiwaju Bola Tinubu that helped him, but along the line, when things changed, it was on record that Ogbeni said that ‘they have all prayed to God to bring Tinubu down.’

“We all knew that with the result of the February 25, 2023 election, God did not answer their prayer. It is good that Ogbeni is now realising and giving kudos to those that made him and supported him to become what he is today.”

In his reaction, a former commissioner of information in Aregbesola’s second term as Osun governor, Larin Baderinwa, dissociated his former principal from anti-party allegation.

“There is no proof that Aregbesola and his men worked against Tinubu.

“Anti-party activity is a serious offence that carries full weight punishment, except when it is used and meant as a witch-hunt. The allegation, whenever it is made, is often subjected to rigorous investigations, found to be very true before any further step is taken.

“In the case of Osun, no one has brought forward any concrete evidence on the allegations being bandied around and mouthed like a running tap. You wonder what they were thinking when they bragged and shouted that Ogbeni and his allies were not needed in the build-up to the elections,” he insisted.