The elders of the All Progressives Congress, under the auspices of PBAT Mandate Elders Forum, on Wednesday, expressed their dissatisfaction over the conduct of the last ward congress of the party.
It was reported that the ward congress was disrupted in some wards in Idanre, Ondo State, as hoodlums were said to have attacked party members. Many people were injured, and vehicles were burnt down during the crisis.
One of the victims of the attack is the brother of the APC chairman, Raphael Adetimehin, who was brutally attacked by the suspected political thugs at his ward in Idanre.
However, the ward Congress committee led by Mrs Margaret Araruenu declared that the congress was successfully conducted.
The facilitator of the APC elders group, Dr Ademola Ijabiyi, who spoke at the monthly meeting of the group, in Akure , the state capital, on Wednesday, lamented that the party had been divided as a result of the crisis that broke out in the ward congress.
Ijabiyi noted that the group had written to President Bola Tinubu on the matter, expressing optimism that the President would act to resolve the matter.
He said, “We are basically here to advance the cause of President Bola Tinubu re-election and therefore anything that can affect it or anything that has bearing with it, we have to address it. And that means that we cannot ignore what happened in our ward congress, where we had parallel congresses in most of the wards.
“We have already written a memo to Mr. President on what to be done on it (the crisis ), and we are well briefed here that we expect that the President will do something to address the situation in Ondo State, so as not to create a permanent division within the party. But right now, that’s what the ward congress has created, that division.
“It is like imposing all those people on us as leaders. But the matter has been brought before the President, who is the national leader of our party, and we believe that he will take action on it. And we are very confident that we act on that memo.”
On the purported rift between Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa and the Minister of Interior, Mr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the APC chieftain noted that the elders in the party at the state level were not aware of any fight between the duo, because both parties would often say there was no fight between them.
“As far as we elders are concerned here, we are not aware of it. So we didn’t go into it. Because if you ask the BTO, he will say there’s nothing between me and the governor. But the ward congress has brought everything out. We are not sure what is really happening. But everything has come out in the ward congress whereby the party now became divided into two”, the statement read.
Also speaking, the Vice Chairman of the Forum, Mr Olorunnibe Tawose, noted that the monthly meeting of the forum was to take care of the medical needs of the elderly, being sponsored by the Interior Minister.
“One of the outcomes is that they will leave this place happier because we have done something to advance their health. The second purpose is to brief ourselves about what is going on in Ondo State, particularly in respect of what happened in our party.
“For today, we have about four health programmes for the elders: sugar test, cholesterol, blood pressure and prostate, and there are drugs being given to them. After the test, we are going to take care of those with borderline,” he explained.
