A former PDP gubernatorial aspirant in Osun state , Dr Akin Ogunbiyi , who announced his decision to rejoin the party during the weekend , has begun to face ‘domestic’ challenges.
He had announced his decision to ‘return’ to the party after getting named as a member of the PDP National Campaign Council for the 2023 presidential election.
Team@orientactualmags.com learned that signs emerged on Tuesday that it may not be a smooth sailing for the top politician.
Ogunbiyi, who is the Chairman , Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc, had sought for Osun state PDP gubernatorial nomination in 2018 and 2022, and later stood as a candidate of the Accord Party in the guber election held in the state on 16 July 2022 .
The former PDP guber aspirant is an indigene of Ile-Ogbo, Ayedire local government, and the Ward Caretaker Committee of PDP, Ward 05, had in a letter addressed to the state PDP Caretaker Chairman, Dr Adekunle Akindele voiced their opposition to his rejoining the party.
In the letter dated 9th September 2022 and titled ‘ RE: NOTIFICATION OF RETURN TO THE PARTY BY DR.AKIN OGUNBIYI: DECISION OF WARD 05, AYEDIRE PDP TO REJECT THE NOTIFICATION’ , which was signed by the Ward Chairman, Alhaji Makinde Mufutau, the Ward exco members noted that they strongly opposed Dr.Akin Ogunbiyi’s decision to ‘return’ to the party and gave reasons for taking such a decision.
‘ Dr.Akin Ogunbiyi since 2018, throughout the period he aspired to contest on the platform of the PDP which he later dumped to join the Accord Party in 2022,he never attended any PDP Ward meeting in Ward 05,Ayedire,and he never participated in any Party activities at the Ward level since 2018 until he dumped the Party in 2022.
The said Accord Party chief constitutes serious threats to the safety, integrity and success of the PDP right from 2018 till date as he specializes in deploying his network for rabid anti-party activities with a target to truncate electoral successes of the party;, his notification letter to re-join the PDP attest to this as he still addressed himself and signed the letter as the Osun State Accord Gubernatorial Candidate.
The said Accord Party chief in 2018 did all devilish things to stop the party’s election victory right the party primary election, several damaging litigations against the party and his direct working against the party to lose his local government and ward during the 2018 guber election; The report of a fact-finding Committee set-up by the Party attested to the fact that Dr.Akin Ogunbiyi was behind all litigations against the Party and her candidate in 2018.
The said Accord Party chief was for decades a close ally of the presidential candidate of the APC, Bola Tinubu and he has constantly being serving as a mole for APC to destroy PDP from within’ the Ward exco submitted.
They also accused him of rebuffing all reconciliatory moves and mobilizing his team in cohort with the APC to launch the ‘most ferocious damaging media and character assassination attacks against the PDP and its governorship candidate’, while also claiming that Ogunbiyi lost his ward and local government to the APC to prove his loyalty to the party , he was also said to be currently working in connivance with the APC to ensure that PDP loses at the Tribunal .
A letter had however later surfaced online claiming that Alhaji Makinde Mufutau had denied being aware of the letter opposing Ogunbiyi’s decision to rejoin the party.
‘I have just been told now by Hon Ismaila that a petition against Dr Akin Ogunbiyi bearing my name is been spread on social media. I want to tell the whole world and the PDP family that I did not write any petition against anybody.
When I got the notice that Dr Akin Ogunbiyi would be rejoining PDP I was very happy. I told our leaders in Ayedire Local Government about the development and they were also happy about it.
Dr Akin Ogunbiyi is our leader, who has contributed greatly to the growth of the party. Anybody complaining about his return does not understand how politics works. No permanent friends ,no permanent enemies.
Please nobody should use my name in respect of any fake petition again. I cannot be against anybody rejoining the party. I was even told that the petition was dated November 19, 2022.
So, please, I beg everyone to allow peace to reign in the party. I did not write any petition and I did not ask anybody to write on my behalf’ he reportedly submitted.
Following this development, Alh Makinde Mufutau issued a press statement on Tuesday night submitting that the position maintained in the letter addressed to the state Caretaker Chairman by the Ward exco subsists.
He submitted that what was contained in the letter was a unanimous decision taken in the best interest of the party at the ward level and the state in general, affirming that the resolution was final and had been communicated to the leadership of the party in the state.
‘Whoever said I denied that we rejected in totality the decision of Dr. Akin Ogunbiyi to rejoin our party at Ward 05 Ayedire LG is lying and malicious. I cannot deny it because it was a joint decision taken after an extensive meeting attended by the ward executives where we took into account the fact that Dr Akin Ogunbiyi has never contributed anything to the party at the ward level or even attended ward meeting since 2018’ he said.
“That is their stock in trade. Remember they did all sort of things to divide the party since 2018 and cause leadership problem to actualize their selfish ambition which we are yet to resolve completely, I am the caretaker chairman of Ward 5 and since we communicated our joint decision to the party leadership in the state earlier today, I have not come up with any letter to the contrary because the decision was taken together with all other stakeholders of the party at the ward level and that remains our position.
It is even glaring before their re-admission that they have started manipulations and impersonation. They have started another war with the party already’ he added.
Sequel to the claims and counterclaims, Team@orientactualmags.com made efforts to get in touch with Alhaji Makinde Muftau, who had become the man of the moment , for a possible telephone interview but he neither picked up nor returned our calls on Tuesday night ditto SMS- Team@orientactualmags.com
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