Osun APC sues Aregbesola for splitting party

The All Progressives Congress in Osun State has dragged former Governor Rauf Aregbesola before the Federal High Court, sitting in Osogbo for allegedly creating a faction within the party. An assistant secretary of the Osun APC, Waheed Adeniran, in an affidavit in support of the Originating Summons filed by the party’s lawyer, Ayodele Kusamotu, urged the court to declare Aregbesola’s formation of a group called Omoluabi Caucus, an act of anti-party. The suit marked FHC/OS/CS/1/2024 also has the Independent National Electoral Commission as a defendant. Also joined as defendants were a former member of the House of Representatives, Rasheed Afolabi, and Mr. Lani Baderinwa, who served in Aregbesola’s cabinet as the Commissioner for Information. The Osun APC wants the court to make “an order of perpetual injunction restraining the 1st defendant from attending or recognising or accepting any congress or convention held or to be held by the 2nd -4th defendants and any other persons associating with them in their factional and parallel political group or association for the purpose of inaugurating or constituting the Executive Council or Committee of the plaintiff at any level or nominating candidates for any elective positions under the provisions of the Constitution the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) in the name or on the platform of the plaintiff.” The plaintiff is also seeking “an order prohibiting the illegal factional and parallel association of the 2nd-4th defendants launched as Omoluabi Progressives (APC) in similar or same name of the plaintiff impersonating the plaintiff’s registered logo, symbol and slogan to function as a political group. “General damages of N5m jointly or severally against the 2nd-4th defendants in favour of the plaintiff.” When contacted for a reaction, Mr Lowo Adebiyi, who is the the leader of the Omoluabi Caucus backed by Aregbesola, said, “We have not been served and when they serve us, we will react accordingly.” The Osun APC was plunged into fresh turmoil last year in August after Aregbesola launched what he called the Omoluabi Caucus of the Osun APC in Ilesa. Members of the caucus were drawn from each of the 332 wards in the state and were represented by five members from each of the local governments in the state at the launch of the group. Speaking at the launch of the caucus, Aregbesola, insisted that the Omoluabi Caucus was not a faction of the APC, but a group of founding members of the party. But Osun APC leadership, in a statement by its chairman, Mr. Tajudeen Lawal, in reaction to the development, warned members of the party against joining Aregbesola’s Omoluabi Caucus. “What informed the formation of a group by Aregbesola now when there is no election around the corner?” APC queried. “It is disheartening and disgusting that Aregbesola could stoop so low to have relegated himself to a sectional APC leader in Ilesa,” the statement partly read.