The Osun Progressive (TOP), a faction within the Osun All Progressives Congress (APC), has called on the national ward congress committee of the party to be fair in the conduct of ward congress in the state on Saturday.
The TOP Chairman, Mr Adelowo Adeniyi, made the call during a news conference on Friday in Osogbo, the capital.
Adeniyi alleged that Osun APC Caretaker Committee had refused to carry other stakeholders along in the preparation and arrangements for the congress.
He said only the Ilerioluwa group (a group belonging to the governor), is involved in the party arrangements, saying no single form was sold to all other interested parties within the APC.
He also alleged that the national secretariat officers sent to Osogbo for the congress had been hijacked and kept from being accessed by other stakeholders in the party.
“We have it on good authority that the Ward Congress Committee appointed by the National Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning committee arrived Osogbo on Friday morning.
“They are said to have been in the Government house with the governor.
“They are circumventing the popular rule of democratic engagement by not allowing the committees to interact with stakeholders in consequent with how things will go tomorrow.” he alleged.
He, however, called on the Ward Congress committee members, who were in the state for the congress, to be fair to all stakeholders within the party.
Reacting to the allegation, APC Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, Kunle Oyatomi, said the allegations by the TOP group were baseless.
Oyatomi assured party members that the congress would be conducted peacefully and transparently on Saturday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that some members of the APC (TOP group) later staged a protest along the Gbongan-Ibadan road, Ogo-Oluwa, Osogbo, alleging that the party caretaker committee chairman had hijacked the nomination forms brought to the state for the congress. (NAN)
