Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State has appealed to all aggrieved groups within the All Progressives Congress in Oyo State to sheathe their swords in the interest of the party.
Fayemi spoke during the reconciliation meeting with aggrieved party members at a special meeting which he hosted at his Amandla Villa, Prince Sijuade Street residence, Jericho, Ibadan, on Sunday.
The governor, who chairs the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, indicated that the APC leadership in the state had agreed to defer to former Adebayo Alao-Akala, as the leader of the party.
The meeting, which lasted close to three hours, had in attendance chieftains of the party from the aggrieved groups, including the SENACO, Lamist and the Unity Forum.
The Lamist group, comprises loyalists of former Governor Lam Adesina; SENACO members are of the Senator Abiola Ajimobi Campaign Organisation, while Unity Forum is an assemblage of APC members who were against Senator Ajimobi.
Some APC leaders from Oyo State had during the National Caretaker and Reconciliation Committee peace meeting, led by the Jigawa State governor, Abubakar Badaru, on September 10, in Abuja, rejected the choice of Chief Alao-Akala as the leader of the party in the state.
Fayemi said, “Part of the reasons why we held the meeting today is that there was a directive, following the successful meeting held in Abuja, that an expanded meeting should take place in Ibadan.
“Naturally, there will be people who would feel that they should be in the meeting. I have a very small house, as you can see, I can’t accommodate more than a sizeable number and I have to follow COVID-19 protocol. So, basically that was what informed the number. It’s not an attempt to denigrate any member. All our members are important.
“The leaders are here, and they are of one voice. As you heard Otunba Alao-Akala said, there is no victor and there is no vanquished. All is settled. We are now a united front as a party, moving strongly towards retaking Oyo State, and working in the interest of progressive politics.”
Fayemi stated that he was not aware of the existence of some groups in the party in Oyo State, saying, “Maybe because I am not from Oyo State, I am not aware of any group. I am aware of stakeholders in our party, some who for one reason or the other had disaffected and felt that certain things ought to have been done in order to bring everybody on board. And that is what we have done. And they were all here. Every segment of our party came to the meeting today.”
Fayemi stated further that APC targets ousting the PDP in 2023 iOyo State, saying that Governor Seyi Makinde of the state, “is my very good friend and brother. As you know, I am the Chairman of the Governors’ Forum, I can’t campaign against the sitting governor. But this is about my party. And I have a national assignment. I am not the one that will remove him. Oyo State members of our party have come together and they are not selling groundnuts.” Alao-Akala, in an interview with journalist’s after the meeting, said, “There is no victor and there is no vanquished. APC will take the state from the Peoples Democratic Party come 2023.”
The meeting was attended by chieftains of the party, including Alao-Akala; Chairman of Nigerian Communication Commission, Prof. Adeolu Akande; Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr. Sunday Dare; former Minister of Communication, Alhaji Adebayo Shittu; legal luminary, Chief Adeniyi Akintola (SAN); the 2019 governorship candidate of African Democratic Congress, Senator Olufemi Lanlehin, and senators Teslim Folarin (Oyo Central) and Abdulfatai Buhari (Oyo North) and the 2019 APC governorship candidate in the state, Chief Adebayo Adelabu.
