Kazeem Badmus
A former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Adebisi Akande, has refused to make a declaration on who is going to be the candidate of the party in the 2022 governorship election in the state.
Akande said he did not know who will be the party’s candidate in next year’s election, even as he maintained that APC will retain power in 2022.
The former governor of the State of Osun stated this on Tuesday, in an interview with newsmen after a meeting of the Osun APC Elders Caucus, known as Igbimo Agba, held at his country home in Ila-Orangun.
He maintained that all the crises rocking Osun APC would be resolved before next year’s election, just as he restated his optimism that the party would not lose at the polls.
Akande said: “We are doing all our best to resolve every crisis; I can assure you that there will be no crisis within our party before the election. We come from different constituencies in Osun and we are going back to let our people know we have started to be more active than before.
“I don’t know who our candidate may be in the forthcoming gubernatorial election, but I can assure you that our candidate will win the election in 2022.”
Speaking on the zoning of the 2023 presidency to the South, Akande said APC does not have constitutional provisions for zoning.
“My take on APC zoning presidency to the south is that, my party has no constitution for zoning, the south will be ready to slog it out with the north, whoever that becomes our candidate will win the presidency seat”, he submitted.
At the meeting, four new members of the APC were inducted into the Elders Forum. They are: former Deputy Governor of the state, Senator Iyiola Omisore, Doctor Yemi Farounbi, Professor Deremi Abubakre and the spokesperson of the Senate, Senator (Dr) Ajibola Basiru.
Speaking, the Chairman of the APC Elders Caucus, Chief Sola Akinwumi, explained that the caucus is a congregation of elders within the state towards actualising good party politicking in Osun and ensuring that all members of the APC do register and play roles at the 2022 governorship election.
He said: “This meeting is a wake-up call, we do it statutorily. This meeting is to bring ideas, discuss them among ourselves.
“Ahead of the State of Osun governorship election, there is no party that can boost of caliber of people that assemble here as elders caucus, among us are former governors, ambassadors, senators and party leaders, just putting heads together to ensure that we will not lose Osun to any other party.”
Asked about the crisis in the party, Akinwumi said: “If anybody is aggrieved, we have mechanism which is internal. We are ready and open to everybody. We are not encouraging people going away, we don’t want opposition within a party, it is not sensible and nobody gains from such practice. I do know that we are open. They are our members like Elder Adelowo Adebiyi who was former acting chairman of the party.
“Nothing is stopping anybody from venting out their anger, if that is anger, they should bury it now and move on because it is the party that will save everybody.
“As far as I am concerned, Aregbesola is a democrat, he will support us. He is supposed to be here. We respect him a lot, and he is part of the Elders’ Caucus. Among us today, we have about two or three former governors, Aregbesola will certainly not do any other thing than standing with progressive, so, there is nothing to worry about.”
