June 9, (THEWILL)- Barely a week after THEWILL exclusively reported how prominent members of Southwest All Progressives Congress (APC) were all conspicuously absent at the 67th birthday party of former Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, he has now been expelled from the party.
The APC in Osun State said that Aregbesola, who is an ex-governor of the State, is not a member of the party. The need to distance itself from Aregbesola became necessary after he established a group called ‘Omoluabi Progressives’ and launched its membership registration at his ward this past weekend.
The APC, in a communique signed by State Chairman Tajudeen Lawal, while officially informing party leadership about the upcoming electronic party membership registration as directed by the national secretariat, warned members against registering with Aregbesola’s group as it is not recognised as part of APC in Osun state.
The communique added that as far as the APC was concerned in Osun State, Aregbesola is no longer a member of the party. It accused Aregbesola of causing distractions within the party’s affairs in the state and that it had notified the national secretariat, at least thrice, to take appropriate actions since it was unable to tame him at the state level.
There have been speculations that the ‘Omoluabi Progressives’ is allegedly a prelude to a new political machinery Aregbesola will use to determine who becomes the next governor of Osun State.
This perhaps may be what has given his new political caucus the courage to fight back, urging its followers not to be distracted by the rantings of the APC in the state to their progressive ideas. The new group also accused the APC of political naivety which made it lose power to the opposition.
Recall that Aregbesola and his followers did not support the re-election bid of his successor, Gboyega Oyetola, in 2019, an anointed candidate of President Bola Tinubu, while also deriding Tinubu at the same time.
Oyetola lost the Osun State gubernatorial election to the incumbent Governor, Ademola Adeleke of the rival Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Despite losing the election, Oyetola retains firm control of the APC in Osun state, leaving Aregbesola no room to manoeuvre within the party.
The launch of the Omoluabi Progressives returned Aregbesola to political reckoning in the state with the ongoing membership drive boosting his status. It is worth noting that Aregbesola has not yet publicly denounced his membership of the APC.
