The former Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, has been advised to apologise for allegedly working against President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The advice was given by a former Commissioner for Information and Strategy who served in Aregbesola’a first term as governor of Osun State, Sunday Akere, on Monday in Osogbo.
The Osun APC chieftain was speaking in reaction to statements credited to Aregbesola on Sunday at a reception organised in his honour by the concerned Muslim scholars and clerics in the South-West of Nigeria in Oyo town, Oyo State.
At the reception, Aregbesola had said he owed his achievements and success in politics to President Bola Tinubu and former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Akere alleged that Aregbesola had worked against the interest of the APC in the February 25 presidential election and the July 16, 2022, gubernatorial election in Osun State.
The Peoples Democratic Party in Osun State had roundly defeated the APC in both elections in the state.
He urged Aregbesola to apologise for his alleged anti-party activities.
He said after the apology, he and his supporters should appear before Prof. Isaac Adewole’s committee instituted to reposition APC in the state and thereafter await the decision of the party on their matter.
“Aregbesola and his supporters worked against Tinubu in the presidential poll. They only changed their tune after the ex-Lagos governor had emerged victorious at the poll.
“Everybody knew Ogbeni Aregbesola and all his followers engaged in anti-party activities in the 2022 governorship election and all the series of elections we had in 2023, and there is nobody that will engage in anti-party activities that will not be punished appropriately for it.
“We expect him and his followers to apologise, appear before the Professor Adewole repositioning committee and state their own side of the matter. We expect them to do what is needful and after then, the party will, maybe, accept their apology.
“When Ogbeni was here as governor in Osun, he always said that after God, it was Asiwaju Bola Tinubu that helped him, but along the line, when things changed, it was on record that Ogbeni said that ‘they have all prayed to God to bring Tinubu down.’
“We all knew that with the result of the February 25, 2023 election, God did not answer their prayer. It is good that Ogbeni is now realising and giving kudos to those that made him and supported him to become what he is today.”
Reacting, Lani Baderinwa, who served in Aregbesola’a second term as Information Commissioner, dismissed the allegations of anti-party activities against his former principal.
“There is no proof that Aregbesola and his men worked against Tinubu.
“Anti-party activity is a serious offence that carries full weight punishment, except when it is used and meant as a witch-hunt. The allegation, whenever it is made, is often subjected to rigorous investigations, found to be very true before any further step is taken.
“In the case of Osun, no one has brought forward any concrete evidence on the allegations being bandied around and mouthed like a running tap. You wonder what they were thinking when they bragged and shouted that Ogbeni and his allies were not needed in the build-up to the elections,” he insisted.