The Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, has written an appeal letter to President Muhammadu Buhari; the Vice-President, Prof Yemi Osibajo; national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu; the party chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun; and other leaders of the party, expressing concern over what he described as consistent decline of the party’s popularity in Oyo State.
He ascribed the dwindling popularity of the party to an internal crisis, which he blamed on Governor Abiola Ajimobi.
In the letter which he titled, ‘Appeal to save the soul of APC, Oyo State chapter,’ the minister accused Ajimobi of using the undemocratic system to run the party.
Shittu said this had led to the loss of every election conducted since Ajimobi won his re-election bid and the alienation of several party members and leaders. He also warned that the decision of the National Working Committee of the party to inaugurate Akin Oke as the chairman of the party in the state amounted to political suicide and lack of political foresight.
He said, “I am constrained to write this appeal to you in view of the undemocratic happenings in the Oyo State chapter of our great party orchestrated by Governor Abiola Ajimobi and his cronies. This undemocratic action of the governor has cost our dear party as we lost every election since 2015 when Ajimobi won his re-election bid. Since his emergence, he has alienated the majority of members, stakeholders and elders of the party. He has run the party like a fiefdom where only his opinion counts.
“The party lost the by-election conducted in August 2016 in Oorelope State Constituency following the death of a lawmaker. The party also lost the by-election conducted on June 2, 2018, in Ibarapa East following the death of the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Michael Adeyemo.”
Shittu in the letter called on Buhari and other leaders of the party to show genuine interest in the crisis threatening the APC in Oyo State.
