The immediate past Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, says President Bola Tinubu and his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, are his political benefactors.

“I need to thank Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. It was through him that I became a commissioner in Lagos State and a two-term governor in Osun,” Aregbesola said at a welcome party organised in his honour by his loyalists in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, on Wednesday, June 7.

Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State, appointed Aregbesola as Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure in the state in 1999; a position he held till 2007.

Tinubu was also instrumental to Aregbesola’s emergence as governor of Osun State from 2010 to 2018.

Former President Buhari also appointed him the Minister of Interior from 2019 to 2023.

Aregbesola, however, thanked Buhari for the opportunity given to him to serve as a minister in his cabinet.

He said: “I come back to thank you, the people of Osun, and those who made it possible for me to progress in politics.

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“I appreciate former President Muhammadu Buhari; after God, it was he that made me the minister; the assignment, which I just concluded.”

The former governor further called for the restructuring of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State, saying it was unfortunate that some people mismanaged the affairs of the party and ran it aground in the state.

Aregbesola said he called for the unity of the Osun APC in 2019 with a warning that failure to unite different interest groups in the party would not produce any good result.

He added: “I am here today to seek restructuring of the party.

“I did not offend anybody; but whoever feels that we offended him or her should forgive us.

“In 2019, after the Supreme Court affirmed the mandate of the former governor, I called for unity in the party.

“I warned that disunity would not produce any good result. But devil did not allow those handling the party’s affairs at that time to listen.

“We seek forgiveness from those who are smearing our image, though we never offended them.

“We are here for the restructuring of the party and that is why we are begging anybody that feels that we offended him or her to forgive us.”

The Star