The All Progressives Congress (APC) has initiated a fresh peace move to bring former Ogun State Governor, Chief Olusegun Osoba and the incumbent Deputy Governor of the state, Mr. Segun Adesegun back to its fold.

A source disclosed the peace move to THISDAY at the weekend, noting that the party had already directed one of its chieftains, Alhaji Kassim Imam, to bring back Osoba and all aggrieved political disciples that defected to the Social Democratic Party (SDP) after falling apart with the state governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun.  

Likewise, a report stated that a delegation of APC chieftains led by the party’s Deputy National Chairman (South), Chief Segun Oni, recently visited Osoba at his Ikoyi home, pleading with him to return the APC.

However, the source said the party directed Imam to reach out to the three serving senators and eight members of the House of Representatives, who defected to the Social Democratic Party (SDP) with Osoba after the controversies that the outcome of the 2014 state and ward congresses in Ogun State.

The source said Imam had already reached out to the Chairman of Senate Committee on Privatisation, Senator Gbenga Obadara, tasking him to prevail on his colleagues in the Senate including Senator Akinola Odunsi (Ogun West), who contested the last governorship election on the SDP platform and Senator Gbenga Kaka, the state former deputy governor.

He added that Imam also mandated Obadara to engage other aggrieved disciples of Osoba in the House of Representatives and the state House of Assembly on the possibility of their return to the APC, citing their contribution to the APC emergence. 

He said the Imam team “has reached out to the former governor. We have no need to quit the APC because we are part of its founding members. The leadership also sent Imam to Obadara to bring them back to the party they laboured to build. Osoba has assured them of peaceful resolution.

“Imam came alone on the instruction of the APC leadership. The party gave him mandate to interface with the Osoba group. But the South-west governors did not help the course of the Osoba group. Even when the governors were asked to intervene, they did not handled the matter without prejudice.”

Aside, the source confirmed that former Ekiti State Governor, Adeniyi Adebayo, had initiated a peace talk with Osoba and Obadara on different occasions to bring them back to the APC fold.

He said the discussion started before the presidential election and in-between presidential and governorship elections, assuring that nothing “will stop them from returning to the PDP. The party’s National Leader, Senator Bola Tinubu once contested on the SDP platform in 1991. In 1999, he was in Alliance for Democracy (AD).

“By 2007, he moved to the Action Congress and now in the APC. So, returning to the APC should not be an aberration. Already, Osoba gave Imam his word. Obadara also, promised to meaningfully engaged Osoba to persuade him on the need to have a rethink.
“Imam had a meeting with Osoba and discussed the possibility of his group returning to the APC as one family.

However, another source told THISDAY that Awujale of Ijebu land, Oba Sikiru Adetona and Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo had, at a meeting before the presidential election, pleaded with Osoba to return to the APC and desist from plans that could alter the ‘change calculation.’

The source said the traditional rulers met the former governor in the palace of Awujale in Ijebu Ode after the president-elect, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari visited Oba Adetona at his home in London.