…Osiele Ward members reject reversal of congress outcome
…Pledge loyalty to governor, demand respect for grassroots democracy
Members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osiele Ward, Odeda Local Government Area of Ogun State, on Friday staged a protest at the party’s state secretariat over what they described as the imposition of executive members on the ward.
The aggrieved party members, who trooped to the secretariat in their hundreds, insisted that the ward congress held in Osiele was peaceful, transparent and in line with party guidelines.
According to them, the exercise produced a new set of ward executive committee members, effectively replacing the former executives, many of whom had allegedly occupied their positions for about 16 years.
The protesters maintained that the outcome of the congress reflected the genuine will of party members at the grassroots and should not be altered under any guise.
Speaking on behalf of the group, some leaders of the ward said the attempt to impose a different set of executives undermines internal democracy and could breed disaffection within the party.
They appealed to the Ogun State leadership of the APC to uphold the results as announced at the ward level, stressing that doing so would promote fairness, justice and reward loyalty among members.
The party faithful argued that the congress was conducted peacefully without disruption, noting that members turned out en masse to participate in the process.
They described the reported moves to overturn the outcome as a setback to the democratic principles the party professes to uphold.
The protesters, however, reaffirmed their commitment to the APC and pledged their unalloyed loyalty to the Ogun State Governor, party leaders and key stakeholders across the state.
They urged the leadership to intervene promptly to prevent the situation from escalating and to sustain unity within the ward and the wider party structure.
As of the time of filing this report, officials of the Ogun State chapter of the APC had yet to issue an official response to the protest.
