Former governor of Osun State and former interior minister Rauf Aregbesola have launched a new All Progressives Congress (APC) caucus in the state called “Omoluabi.”
Aregbesola claimed the action was a part of his reaffirmed dedication to the party and added that political parties are a mashup of various interests and tendencies.
Five representatives from each of the local government areas served as the caucus’ members, who were chosen from the state’s 332 wards.
According to a statement made by his media adviser, Sola Fasure, the former governor officially inaugurated the Omoluabi Caucus on Tuesday in Ilesa, Osun State, where he was born and raised.
Aregbesola emphasized that Omoluabi is just one of many caucuses in the state and that it is not a division of the party but rather a gathering of like-minded individuals.
“The Omoluabi tendency is a caucus within the APC; it is actually one of the caucuses in the state. We are not a faction. We are the genuine foundation members of the party, and we have no intention of abandoning the ship of the party as it navigates the most turbulent waters. We are not sprinters but long-distance runners, and we will still be standing when all the fair weather [people] have gone.
“What we have come to do here today is to renew our commitment to the path of progressive ideology and politics as inherited from our great past heroes, beginning with Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Michael Adekunle Ajasin, Chief Abraham Adesanya, Chief Bola Ige, and others in the pantheon of progressive politics too numerous to mention.
“Emerging from the ashes of the near annihilation of our party in the governorship election of 2022 and the general election earlier this year, we should rise up and renew our strength and reclaim our place in the political firmament in Osun.
“We have been at this juncture before, after the 2003 election in which our party lost the stakes and was at its nadir in the state. At that point, like-minded progressives under the banner of Oranmiyan emerged to begin a movement that mobilised our members and the people of the state into a veritable electoral machine that won the 2007 governorship election, which ushered in an epoch-making two-term administration in the state and handed over to a successor from our party,” Ogbeni Aregbesola stated.