The crisis in the All Progressive Congress, APC in Kwara State heightened as many stakeholders who are loyalists to Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq felt cheated for not being invited to a meeting coordinated by Prince Sunday Fagbemi. The disgruntled APC members were excluded in a plan to adopt a consensus rather than congress in the State.
From an inside source, it was revealed that the party selected a few stakeholders from Kwara South senatorial district for a secret meeting to decide on how to go about the consensus in favour of the reelection bid of the governor in 2023.
In a secret meeting held on Monday, at the SOJ residence, GRA in Ilorin, the party only selected few people from ten wards in Kwara South. Those present at the meeting were; from Koro ward – Asiwaju Ayo Samuel and Engr. Molagunand Iyee, Eruku ward – OTJ, Hon. K. Bayode, AkinBamidele and Hon. Gbemisola, Obbo Ile – Chief Ige, Prince Deji Sons, Chief S Olosunde and Chief Ive, Oke Opin/ Etan – Chief Adeyemi and Lawyer Adeseko, Isapa – Hon. GG Abolarin, Opin – Hon. Wale Awelewa and Chief Ayeni, Obbo 1&2 – Prince Fagbemi, Osi Ward 1 – Dr. R Rasaq, lastly Osi 2 – Chief WS Owolabi and Alhaji Saliu.
Among the stakeholders that were supposed to be at the meeting but denied the information are; Chief Ezikiel Folarin Gbadeyan and Hon. Kayode Oladokun from Obbo-Aiyegunle, Senator S.S Ajibola, Pilot Tosin Ajibola, board member of Aviation College, and the immediate past council chairman, Ayeni Yinka Dallas, Osi – Olaiya Bello, former council Chairman, and many others.
Meanwhile, the outcome of the meeting was concealed from other party stakeholders who were not invited to the meeting.
According to one of the disgruntled APC members, he said it is now clear that the party will continue to witness mass deflection of its members to the opposition party if they continue to handle matters in this manner.
He said, “It is unfortunate that those of us working for the progress of the APC party in Kwara State and also in total support of the administration of Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq are being neglected, frustrated, and excluded in the party affairs.”
It is obvious that the APC faction group in support of the governor is looking for possible a way to choose all the party executives across all the wards in the 16 local governments of the state even without holding the congress.
Recall that some aggrieved members had dumped the party to form a third force last month. This came after the aggrieved members accused the governor and his loyalists of a deliberate attempt to deregister and disenfranchise selected members of the party members in Kwara.
In an effort to resolving the crisis among the party members, the National Secretary, Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of APC, Sen. James Akpanudoedehe, in a statement which was made available to newsmen on Tuesday announced the approval of the continuation of Party’s membership registration, revalidation and register update exercise in Kwara, Imo, Ogun and Rivers States.
The approval will give those who have not been registered in these states the opportunity to purchase forms for congresses, party office elections, and conventions. The registration exercise will continue for the next two weeks.