A member of the House of Representatives, Lawrence Ayeni, says the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Enoch Adeboye, tried to settle the political rift between the Osun State Governor, Gboyega Oyetola, and his predecessor, Rauf Aregbesola, to no avail.
Adeboye, Oyetola, and Aregbesola, the Minister of Interior, are from Osun State.
Ayeni, who represents Ilesha West/Ilesha East, Atakumosa East/Atakumosa West Federal Constituency in the House of Reps, disclosed this in an interview NAN in Abuja on Monday.
It would be recalled that the All Progressives Congress alleged that the state’s July 16 governorship election was won by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) due to the rift between the Ileri Oluwa group and The Osun Progressive (TOP).
The Ileri Oluwa group is headed by Governor Oyetola, while the TOP group is led by Aregbesola.
Ayeni said a reconciliation meeting aimed at settling the rift between the two gladiators was actually fixed and billed to be mediated by Adeboye but one of them failed to show up.
The lawmaker said although Adeboye initially declined to mediate in the duo’s political rift, saying he was not a politician, he later accepted the offer to mediate to settle it.
“Adeboye said that for him, he was not a politician and he was not going to poke-nose because of certain things but the two of them could not meet in his house.
“Had it been they were able to meet him may be the crisis would have been over.
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“One of them did not even go for the scheduled meeting with Adeboye and Adeboye said well, that is it,” he said.
Ayeni added that others like former interim chairman of APC, Chief Bisi Akande, former governor Segun Osoba, and the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, also tried to settle the rift to no avail.
The lawmaker further disclosed that all the APC House of Reps members from Osun State also tried to also resolve the crisis but met a brick wall.
“Up to the stage that the election was approaching, the chairman of the party called them, but if one side comes today, the other won’t come,” he stated.
Ayeni said he could not explain what could have happened between the duo, adding that it was better the rift was settled so that it would not affect the party in the 2023 general election.
He, however, called on the two to sit down and resolve the issue, adding that he was hopeful they would come together.
Ayeni said the major thing that contributed to the APC’s loss was lack of unity, adding that there was no unity in the party and any house that was divided against itself would not stand.
He said: “Had it been we were united, the opposition could not have found their way even through rigging, so we must ensure unity in the party.”
The lawmaker said everyone has seen the result of the division in the governorship election and learned a lesson from it.
He added that Osun State was critical to the South-West, saying the party must put its house in order to win in 2023.
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