The newly elected Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogun State, Tunde Oladunjoye has insisted that there were no parallel congresses in the state.
The ruling party held its states congresses across the country last Saturday.
Oladunjoye, who featured in a RockCity FM’s programme tagged “Citizens’ Forum” in Abeokuta, described the purported parallel congress conducted by the former governor of the state, Ibikunle Amosun, and his loyalists as a “charade” and a mere gathering of “family and friends.”
He accused Amosun and his followers of planning to cause chaos and throw the state into anarchy by heating the polity.
According to him, the ex-governor and his followers are not loyal members of the party but a group of impostors who are only hell-bent on disrupting the peace in the state since the commencement of Governor Dapo Abiodun’s administration.
Oladunjoye maintained that the only authentic executives of the party at ward, local government, and state levels are those whose elections were conducted by the seven-member congress committee sent from the APC national headquarters in Abuja, and monitored by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) led by the Ogun State Resident Electoral Commissioner.
He said the purported parallel congress staged by Amosun’s supporters was neither sanctioned by the national leadership of the party nor monitored by INEC officials.
The spokesman urged the party’s national leadership to deal decisively with those he described as impostors who have violated the party’s constitution by engaging in anti-party activities.
Oladunjoye said: “If you want to be relevant in a party and want to be the leader, it is not by force. You have to lobby, persuade, and follow the rules and regulations of that party.
“For a parallel executive committee to exist, that means you would have had the committee sent from Abuja split into two when they got to Ogun State or maybe the national body sent two committees to Ogun State and that was not the case in this matter.
“In political party structure, there are different hierarchies. We had ward congresses in the 236 wards, it was at these ward congresses that five delegates were elected per ward. And after the ward congresses, there was an in-built party mechanism that whoever disagrees with that congress will go to an appeal.
“And the appeal committee came to Ogun State and sat for four days and listened to petitioners. There was a petition by Senator Tolu Odebiyi from Ogun West, there was a petition from Senator Lekan Mustapha from Ogun East and a petition from one Baruwa from the Ijebu axis.
“The committee also gave room for these petitioners to present their case. Those who were mentioned were asked to respond, at the end of the day, the party ruled that the ward congresses were in order and it was upheld and it was based on this that we were asked to inaugurate the chairmen as we moved on to the local government congress.
“That means the five delegates elected at the ward level were the main body that will vote at the state congress. So, if anyone now says he has other delegates outside those, you know that this will amount to self-deceit.”