• Osun Elites Battle To Reclaim Osun from Former Lagos State Gov’s Grip

The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC , Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s political influence seems to be waning as the former Lagos State Governor is impeded by stiff resistance to install his man, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola as next Osun governor prompting an appeal from the president to wade in, TREK AFRICA can authoritatively report.

A highly placed source in the presidency told this medium that the agenda of the meeting Tinubu on Thursday in the company of a former APC interim national chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, the incumbent governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola and APC candidate in the state, Gboyega Oyetola had with the President Buhari  was to beg him to prevail on some aggrieved top politicians in Osun and southwest to support APC candidate in the September 22 governorship election.

It will be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari  assigned Tinubu the  assignment of reconciling aggrieved members of the party across the nation. Tinubu has not achieved much as protracted crisis rocking the party persists.

Oyetola, a close ally of Tinubu emerged as the candidate of the APC in a direct primary election which was reportedly marred by irregularities and non-compliance with the electoral Act and APC constitution.

Subsequently,  some aspirants and other top chieftains of the party dumped the party for opposition political parties.  A former secretary to the state government, Moshood Adeoti defeated to Action Democratic Party  and picked the party’s governorship ticket.

Adeoti’s defection, it was gathered destabilized the party and rattled Tinubu and Governor Rauf Aregbesola as hundreds of APC members defected to ADP with him creating a precarious situation for the Tinubu’s candidate.

TREK AFRICA also gathered that Adeoti who was a founding  chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN which morphed into APC in Osun State has a wide support at the grassroots and he is adjudged to know the Osun political terrain inside out.

Adeoti who is rumored to be backed by some governors and other influential politicians in the southwest is giving Tinubu, Aregbesola a deep concern as his (Adeoti’s) exit made them vulnerable to battles on many fronts.

Apart from the fact, that Adeoti who hails from Iwo, Osun West district disrupted the political permutation, the influence and sympathy for the  PDP candidate Adeleke  in Ede, the second largest town after Osogbo and other traditional strongholds of the PDP in the state. Likewise,  an assured block votes for the Social Democratic Party, SDP candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore in Ile-Ife further compounded the worries of Tinubu.

The threatening developments, TREK AFRICA gathered compelled Tinubu to seek audience with the president to save his candidate from defeat.

TREK AFRICA also gathered that the decision of Aregbesola to pay full salaries of civil servants barely one month to the election was at behest of Tinubu’s prompting to assuage grieving workers and boost the waning popularity of the APC in Osun state.

“ You recall that in 2014, Aregbesola had to source for arrears of salaries when the governorship election was fast approaching. Some governors had to rally him them. It is the same tactic they are using now but I doubt if that will work magic for obvious reasons

“The issues at hand are higher than that of 2014. APC had lost many of its capable men to the opposition and other critical factors”, a source told our correspondent.

It was also gathered there are plans to flood Osun with APC members and other hired people from both Oyo and Lagos states to create a false impression of popularity and acceptance during the mega rally of the APC to get full support of the president.

Meanwhile,  a group of elites in Osun are collaborating with powerful individuals within and outside the state on what they called a mission to reclaim Osun state from Tinubu who is reported to be ruling the state from Lagos through his cronies.

The group and its allied forces see the candidature of Oyetola as an attempt to perpetuate Tinubu’s  dynasty in the state to the detriment of the Osun-based political tendencies.