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… as national quashes Arabambi’s suspension as Ogun chair
Olasunkanmi Akinlotan
The sum of N3,000,000 largesse gotten from the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) by the Inter-Party Advisory Council in Ogun state has been discovered to be the reason behind the crisis currently rocking the body. PLATFORM TIMES can report.
The umbrella body of political parties has been going through some internal wrangling since the March 9th governorship election was conducted in the state but the crisis garnered momentum on 24th of April, when the council suspended its state Chairman, Com. Arabambi Abayomi.
It would be recalled that, Chairmen from 34 political parties, attended the meeting and reportedly voted in favour of the suspension while some Chairmen in the council argued that only 11 of them were in agreement to the suspension, although others kicked saying that the move was unconstitutional.
A day after the suspension, the National Secretary, Mrs. Aye Dakpokpo through a letter dated, 25th April, summoned the entire members of the state IPAC to Abuja to address the said issue.
Meanwhile, a source inside IPAC who lives in Ijebu hinted PLATFORM TIMES that a sum of N2,000,000 was dolled out as bribe for some members to effect the said suspension.
The money was said to be contributed by two leading political parties with the aim of deposing the Chairman for reasons not known to PLATFORM TIMES.
Earlier, the members got angry over the APM’s N3,000,000 gift which was given to the council when it visited the APM in solidarity during its Mega campaign rally held at the MKO stadium in Abeokuta.
Another source also told our reporter that the angry members initially thought the Chairman, Com. Arabambi was responsible for the embezzling of the largesse which some said was not equally shared, while some others said they didn’t even get from the money at all.
But, after the national executives’ investigation, it was discovered that the money was fraudulently spent by few members of the council who only gave the embattled chairman N100,000.
Sequel to this revelation, the members immediately returned to the camp of the chairman against the biddings of their sponsors.
After the meeting held at the federal capital territory, the national chairman of IPAC, however, sent a seven-man dispute resolution panel headed by Hon. Geff Ojinika to the state to further investigate the matters before the council.
At the end of the meeting, the Chairman of the reconciliation committee told our reporter through a telephone conversation that the Arabambi led executives remain.
He said, “Our seven-man panel is a fact-finding panel, we have been mandated to look into issues in the Ogun state chapter of the IPAC with a mandate of finding an amicable solution to it and also bring about peace and restore integrity to the state chapter of the IPAC.
“We have told the members that (there is) no leadership change in IPAC Ogun state, but for the issues, we would make our recommendation to the national executive committee of the party.
“We have met with the administrative secretary of INEC, among others and we told them that Arabambi remains the Chairman.”
Meanwhile, a chairman from the Egba area of the state who does not want his name in print but present at the meeting also told PLATFORM TIMES that a bye-election will be conducted for the office of Assistant Secretary and Treasurer as occupants of the offices have been removed for different reasons.
Present at the event include; Chairmen of all political parties in the state, representatives from the Department of the State Security Services. (DSS), and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
