OSUN: Why Gov. Gboyega Oyetola Lost Re-election - APC | READ FULL DETAILS

Recall that fifteen political parties contested the governorship poll seeking to deprive the governor his second term ambition. However, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)'s candidate, senator Ademola Adeleke won the election with a total vote of 403,371 to defeat Oyetola who polled 375, 027 from 13 LGAs out of 30.

Speaking on the failure of the incumbent governor, Mr Rasaq Salinsile, Osun APC factional chairman, said the defeat was owed to the governor's segregation, politics of hatred and above all his 'betrayal of Rauf Aregbesola the current minister for Interior who was his predecessor.

"But it is an obvious fact that Governor Isiaka Oyetola came to destroy our party. We all worked as a united family to install him as governor in spite of all odds. But the moment he got there, he started politics of segregation and divide and rule tactics which he thought he could use to whip everybody back in line; particularly, he was against anything Aregbesola.

"How on earth can you be a Chief of Staff to a sitting governor for good eight years and pretended to him to be what you were not. I have never met that kind of person in my life and I am not a young man.

"He was not yet sworn in when he started the segregation, politics of hatred. Anybody that have anything to do with the immediate past governor of the state, Aregbesola; automatically, you become one of the members in his black book" Salinsile told PUNCH.

Buttressing on how Oyetola allegedly destroyed the party, Salinsile said;

"How can the leader of a house behave that way and you think that house will be peaceful? We said it severally without mincing words so that those who have ears will hear. We went to our leaders starting with Baba Akande to the national chairman of the APC. Asiwaju (Bola Tinubu) sent one Alhaji Masari from Katsina state to us; he was the place holder for the APC presidential candidate.

"He said our resolutions should be written down that he would come back the following day to collect it, saying Asiwaju gave him that assignment. Up till today, we have not seen him. He never came back. Three times, Oyetola sent words to me saying if he calls me will I pick his call? If he invites me, will I honour the invitation? And I said he was still my governor and that I owe him a lot of respect.

"Every time, he will always disappoint. He later said the matter was beyond his power. In whose power was it then? That means there is somebody somewhere remote-controlling him. This result was expected."

On the way out, Salinsile said the party has been demolished, adding that the members would have to return to the drawing board.

"We now have to go to the drawing board and look for where we have erred and make amends. It was a very clear issue. It was Oyetola administration that brought calamity to our party. The remaining leaders must act now," he admonished.

On his own part, the factional Publicity Secretary of the APC in Osun State, Abiodun Agboola, also attributed the APC loss in the governorship poll to the internal wrangling within the party.

He said, "The election has come and gone and winner has emerged. I believe the people have spoken and from the result our party lost. No organisation can go into an election with division without suffering a humiliating defeat the progressives suffered in Osun on Saturday.

"Part of our problem is the internal wrangling and we clamoured that the party should intervene to resolve the crisis before the election. What led to the internal wrangling is exclusion and when you exclude some people from participating, that is the kind of result you will get.

"I hope the party will learn from this and set things straight because we are still going for the presidential election in 2023 and that is some few months away."