Ogun APC crisis: Ward congresses suspended indefinitely

Two factions of the party held parallel congresses and produced two different executives in all 235 wards across the state.
The Congress Committee of All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ogun State on Tuesday suspended the proposed re-run congress after a faction of the party staged a protest over the controversial congresses that held on Saturday.
The Chairman of the Committee, Ope Salami, made this known a few hours after a faction led by a former Deputy Governor in the State and a serving senator, Adegbenga Kaka, turned down the planned re-run congress
The crisis in the party resulted in two factions of the party holding parallel congresses and producing two different executives in all 235 wards across the state.
Efforts by the State Congress Committee to harmonise the two factions were unsuccessful.
Apparently showing their displeasure, the faction known to be loyal to former governor Olusegun Osoba, and led by Mr. Kaka, in a protest letter rejected the proposed re-run.
The faction, under the auspices of the National Assembly caucus of the party in the state, said it rejects the planned rerun of the wards congresses in some local government areas of the state after it consulted with stakeholders in the party.
“On behalf of our teeming supporters, we completely dissociate ourselves from further breaching of the guidelines as released by our national office. The provision in the guideline is for an appeal to the Appeal Committee for adjudication on any alleged breaches and not for a rerun.
“A situation where aspirants that paid the due nomination fees were denied of relevant forms while those that did not pay had unfettered access to the form cannot be said to be fair to all concerned.
Therefore on the Guidelines provisions we stand. We therefore implore all our members to ignore any call to chaos and anarchy that the purported rerun is likely to cause,” the group said in the statement
Mr. Salami confirmed that the committee had received some petitions by aggrieved members. He explained that the planned re-run of the ward congresses had been suspended indefinitely, stating that the committee had contacted the national headquarters over the stalemate.
“We have suspended the re-run and we have truly received some petitions by some people who claimed that they were disenfranchised. They said they would not be part of the re-run. We have contacted Abuja; we are waiting for the directives from them. This situation is above our jurisdiction. They are sending appeal committee from Abuja to the state tomorrow”, Mr. Salami said.
The committee boss said that part of the complaints of the aggrieved group was that its members were not allowed to partake in the last congresses despite that they have tellers as evidence of having purchased forms.
“These people also said that the committee allowed some people to partake in the congresses without having individual tellers as stipulated in the guidelines. But, there is no way we can authenticate their own tellers. We cannot authenticate their tellers, it is beyond our scope”.