The Immediate past Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Lasun Yussuff has denied being a member of the political block of the former governor of Osun State and current Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, ‘The Osun Progressives (TOP)’ talk more of being a member of its Board of Trustee.
Lasun Yussuff, who is a chieftain of the All Progressives’ Congress (APC), described the development as a “rude shock”.
He made this known in a statement issued by Prof. Aderemi Ajala of Lasun Yussuff Constituency Office, a copy of which was made available to AMILOADED in Osogbo on Sunday.
Lasun Yussuff said that he was surprised that the former governor who had dissociated himself from him for over five years could be sourcing for him to be part of his political group in the state.
The former Deputy Speaker, who frowned at the current division of the ruling party in the state, added that “what should be uppermost in the minds of all the stakeholders now is how to strengthen the party”.
He further called on Governor Gboyega Oyetola to caution members of his cabinet who are denigrating the stakeholders of the party.
The statement read, “It was a rude shock to read a vira social media report that came out on Saturday 15th of May 2021, that Rt. Hon. Lasun Yussuff who is a former Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives is a member of Board of Trustees (BOT) of a newly formed factional group in Osun All Progressives’ Congress (APC) known as The Osun Progressives (TOP), where Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the former Governor of Osun state and presently the Minister of Interior, is the chairman of the group’s BOT.
“While distancing Rt. Hon. Lasun Yussuff from TOP, it is noted that over the years since Lasun was elected as the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives till present, virtually all the members of TOP including the ex-Governor Rauf Aregbesola have politically dissociated from him.
“All of them stood against him in his ambition to be the state governor in 2018, and since then to the present, no meeting was held with him, except few individual friendly informal conversations on national politics with some close party friends.
“It is therefore suprised to read that a factional group was formed without his knowledge and he was made as a member of the group’s BOT.
“In addition as an adherent of progressive ideology in Nigerian party politics, Lasun’s position is that APC should be restrengthened through the collective efforts of all the stakeholders and not through the factionalization of the party.
“Lasun believes in the existing structure of our party (APC) to address all differences among the stakeholders of the party.
“He therefore calls on the Governor of Osun State- Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola to call some of his cabinet members and his supporters who are denigrating some stakeholders of the party through their provocative utterances in social media outlets, to order.
“While the factionalisation of the party does the progressive family no good, provocative statements against anybody in the party is equally counter productive.
“Lasun also enjoins the governor to brace up to strengthen the party and concentrate on good governance in the state. It is through those that our party can truly be progressive.”
Former Deputy Speaker of the Congress Honorable Lasun Yusuff has spoken well. I can’t expect less from a man of his iconic pedigrees, political sagacity, intellectual brilliance and maturity. His non partisan position is instructive enough for those who sincerely want Governor Adegboyega Oyetola to win his second tenure election. It is equally incumbent on the National Caretaker Committee of the APC to appoint him as the Chairman of one of its recently inaugurated Committees especially when new decampees to the party who even aren’t as beneficial to the party as he is particularly in Osun State are given plum positions in them. Make no mistake, the next governorship election in the State may not be an easy walkover hence popular, influential, philanthropic national and grassroot leaders like him ought to be involved in its preparation and right now.
Prince Sonny Ajayi.