‘Your political funeral imminent’ — Osun APC knocks Aregbesola’s group for leaving party

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun has hit back at Omoluabi Progressives, the political group of Rauf Aregbesola, a former governor of the state. 

On Sunday, the group announced its decision to quit the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Abosede Oluwaseun, spokesperson of the group, said members resolved to quit APC because of “ostracisation from the party, suspension and expulsion of leaders without fair hearing, and continuous denigration of the structure”.

Oluwaseun said group members expressed their readiness to join another political party ahead of the 2026 Osun governorship election.

Reacting in a statement on Monday, Kola Olabisi, the Osun APC director of media and information, said the party viewed the Omoluabi Progressives’ decision as “good riddance to bad rubbish”.

Olabisi said the group’s decision is “the imminent beginning of their political funeral, which will end up in their final burial through the 2026 governorship election”.

The APC spokesperson recounted that a large number of Omoluabi Progressives members had either been expelled or suspended from the party, describing them as “agents of the Peoples Democratic Party”.

“We, in the Osun State APC, shall be happy to miss the political irritants and deviants who had since left the party by way of body and soul before the 2022 governorship election in the state,” the statement reads.

“How would any rational human being who has been suspended or expelled announce his resignation to the whole world again?

“Is that not an example of superfluity! You cannot be saying you are in our party and be working against the interest of the same party.

“You are agents of the PDP in Osun State and you are still of service to the ruling party in the state. What we are seeing with hindsight is that the hand is proverbially that of Jacob while the voice is identifiable to Esau.

“We shall be ready for the antics of the political renegades. The ambulatory Omoluabi Progressives believe they are more progressive in Nigeria than the real progenitors of the progressives party, having no respect for the elders and their political benefactors.

“We are not bothered by the action of the frustrated and expired politicians who had since left the party since about three years ago when all their efforts to destabilize and hijack the party did not come to fruition.

“The recent announcement of your either forming or joining another party is the imminent beginning of your political funeral which will end up in your final burial through the 2026 governorship election.

“More importantly, the blindfolded followers of the ill-fated Omoluabi Progressives will regret being part of this shenanigan.

“Osun APC is waxing stronger by the day. Our message to the frustrated Omoluabi Progressive handlers is that whoever wants to bury his elder brother nakedly should take along his younger brother in order to show the latter how he too would be buried at the end of his journey of life.”

POLARISED

Since 2021, Aregbesola’s faction has been at loggerheads with the state’s chapter of the APC over the leadership structure of the party.

The leadership crisis in Osun APC contributed to the defeat of the party in the 2022 governorship election.

Oyetola, former Osun governor, lost his re-election bid to Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The Aregbesola APC faction refused to work for the party during the 2022 election.

Speculations will likely persist on whether Omoluabi Progressives would pitch tent with the PDP ahead of the governorship poll.