The Saturday meeting held at the private residence of a former of governor of Oyo State, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala, has been described as a gathering for ambitions without any intention whatsoever of reconciling aggrieved members of All Progressives Congress (APC) or moving the party forward in anyway in Oyo state.

A group within the party, The APC Core Progressives Forum, said in a release made available to journalists, in Ibadan yesterday, the meeting was “suspect”  and should be disregarded by the national secretariat of the party, as none of the known APC leaders and aggrieved people were in attendance.

According to the release signed by Chairman of the forum, Mr. Olayemi Emmanuel, over 95 per cent of the attendees at the meeting were strangers to the progressive family and those mainly jostling for positions and undue political relevance without any progressive antecedents.

It said the intention of the meeting made up mainly of ultra conservative politicians, was to hijack the structures of the party with the aim of foisting one of them as leader of APC in Oyo State in order to hand over the party back to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where they all came from against 2023.

According to him, the statement was issued at the end of a review of the two separate meetings held by former Governor Alao-Akala and Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Sunday Dare in Ibadan over the weekend, the core progressives in the state found out that: “the meeting that  Alao-Akala summoned under the pretext of reconciliation on Saturday in Ibadan in his private residence has nothing to do with reconciliation. It has more to do with ambitions."

He said, “The first ambition is the conspiracy to foist Alao-Akala on APC Oyo as leader with Mr Teslim Folarin, a serving senator, as the chair leader. Second ambition is to gather those gubernatorial ambitions together to design the hijack of the party. And as far as the core progressives and ardent followers of political developments the Alao-Akala’s reconciliation meeting remains suspect."

The forum raised a few posers: “Were the people to be reconciled at the meeting? No. Rather we had the same party members who fell out with others at the meeting back slapping and grinning. Where are the Unity group people?’’ None of the known progressives and foundation leaders and members of APC across the zones of Oyo State was at the meeting."

“Key party leaders from the immediate administration were all missing. APC Chairman was absent. Even Minister of Youths and Sports who was in Ibadan and held a party consultative meeting a day earlier was conspicuously missing.

“We as progressives know as a matter of fact that our leaders in the progressives in Oyo State would never fall prey to antics and deceits of the conservative politicians to take over our party under any guise and therefore urged the National Interim Committee and the National Reconciliation Committee for Imo, Oyo and Plateau States to totally disregard the Alao-Akala’s meeting as it was only meant to feather the nests of the conservative party, PDP. Also, where is the full report of the Reconciliation committee by Alao-Akala? Has it been submitted to the party and vetted?

The statement further queried the outcome of the meeting as lacking in substance, stating that the same mentality that tore the party apart is now again being exhibited.

APC Oyo has been embroiled in serious crisis, a fact which led to its colossal loss in the 2019 elections. Mr Bisi Akande-led committee and the Alao-Akala-led committees have been working to reconcile party members. But there seems not to be any method to these attempts.

The forum however lauded the consultative meeting with select APC leaders and members hosted by Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Sunday Dare, stating that it was a right step in the right direction with the response and quality attendance on Friday signaling a new trajectory.

The Minister led the discussion by insisting that unity was the only path to victory and that the attempt by a few to think they own the party can only divide, not unite.