Barely two weeks after the death of former Governor of Oyo State and APC Chieftain, Otunba Christopher Adebayo Alao-Akala, Senator Teslim Folarin and Chief Niyi Akintola, SAN, have emerged the frontrunners for the control of the party amid the crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress, nationwide.
While Folarin is a former senate leader as a PDP Chieftain, Akintola was briefly a deputy speaker of the State House of Assembly.
While a governor of a North-Central State is rooting for Folarin, Akintola is largely favoured by prominent stakeholders.
If the statutory arrangement is to be followed in the absence of former governor, late Adebayo Alao-Akala, Chief Iyiola Oladokun, a former deputy governor of the state and the current highest-ranking public office holder, should emerge APC leader in the state.
Next to Oladokun, in the statutory hierarchy is Chief Moses Alake Adeyemo, who was deputy to late governor, Isiaka Ajimobi. Oladokun was deputy between 1999 and 2003, to late governor, Alhaji Lam Adesina.
Meanwhile, the executive committees approved for state chapters by the national caretaker committee led by Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni, have allegedly sparked a fresh crisis in the party.
The harmonised list for the state chapter is expected to be released this week, preparatory to the swearing-in of the new state helmsmen.
Meanwhile, a source close to the party’s national secretariat disclosed at the weekend that with the fresh crisis bound to be bigger in proportion than experienced in recent past, the release of the approved state chapters’ executives may be delayed till a few days to the convention
Two senior operatives of the governing party told Sunday Tribune yesterday that the party is manifesting all symptoms of a post-convention explosion, if the exercise scheduled to elected new national officers for the party will hold at all.
The fresh crisis is reportedly coming on the heels of accusations of lack of sincerity and objectivity on the part of the Buni leadership by factional elements in state chapters.
The two broad parameters allegedly adopted by the Buni leadership to govern the power-sharing deals among factions in the state chapters are said to be countenancing APC governors as leaders in their states and highest-ranking public office holder members as leaders in non-APC states.
While other tendencies are to be accommodated in the power-sharing deals, the two categories of leaders are tipped to be in control of party structures in their states as well as major and majority of state executive positions.
The national secretariat of the party, which made the power-sharing rules, is being accused of bending them when and where it suits the purposes and interests of leading members of the Buni committee.
While the caretaker committee is said to have largely shown fidelity to the arrangement of APC governors being party leaders in their domains, the non-APC states are said to have become a trading ground for the Buni committee, frustrating shortchanged stakeholders in many states.
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