TheCable

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has expressed shock over the visit of Rauf Aregbesola, governor of Osun state, to Ayodele Fayose, his Ekiti state counterpart.

Aregbesola was in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, to partake in activities meant to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the state.

At a public forum broadcast live on the state media, Aregbesola described Fayose as a hardworking governor who had turned around the fortunes of Ekiti in terms of infrastructure.

But responding in a statement issued on Tuesday, Taiwo Olatunbosun, publicity secretary of Ekiti APC, wondered how one of the leading lights in south-west APC could visit a man who once wished death upon President Muhammadu Buhari.

Olatubosun alleged that Fayose had inflicted pains on many APC members, “some of whom had been languishing in jail for about two years for the offences they did not commit”.

“Aregbesola’s visit to Fayose praising him as ‘omoluabi’ and for the achievements by APC-led government is not alone embarrassing but also awful in the face of sustained attacks on APC members, some of whom are still languishing in jail for about two years over trumped-up charges by Fayose,” the statement read.

“It is shocking that Aregbesola as a governor and one of the leading lights in APC in the south-west and indeed the nation would be visiting Ekiti State without putting the leaders into confidence, more so on a visit to a man who once wished the President dead and had done unbelievable things both in Nigeria and abroad to bring Buhari’s government down.

“Worse still, Aregbesola was praising the man who will stop at nothing to bring APC-led federal government down after several years of failed attempts by the progressives to win the presidency of Nigeria.

“We find it most embarrassing and shocking that one of our leaders would be planning a re-alignment of forces with a governor that has made life a nightmare for our members, the same members that will participate in the said re-alignment that Aregbesola is talking about, without sparing a thought for members held in jail unjustly while other APC members are routinely attacked by Fayose’s men on the streets.”