The Immediate past Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Lasun Yussuff has distanced himself from being a member of the political block, The Osun Progressives TOP, purportedly chaired by the immediately Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola,
Reports emerged last week in social media where the former Governor of Osun State declared his support for the factional group within the APC.
In a press statement issued by Prof. Aderemi Ajala of Lasun Yussuff Constituency Office, Osogbo on Sunday, the former Deputy Speaker who denied the member of the group and Board of Trustee described the move as a rude shock.
He said that he was surprised that the former governor who had dissociated himself from him for over five years could be sourcing for him to be part of his political group in the state.
The former Deputy Speaker who frowned at the current division of the ruling party in the state also said that, “what should be uppermost in the minds of all the stakeholders now is how to strengthen the party”.
He also called on Governor Gboyega Oyetola to caution members of his cabinet who are denigrating the stakeholders of the party.
The statement reads in parts, ”It was a rude shock to read a vira social media report that came out on Saturday 15th of May 2021, that Rt. Hon. Lasun Yussuff who is a former Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives is a member of Board of Trustees (BOT) of a newly formed factional group in Osun All Progressives’ Congress (APC) known as The Osun Progressives (TOP), where Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the former Governor of Osun state and presently the Minister of Interior, is the chairman of the group’s BOT.
“While distancing Rt. Hon. Lasun Yussuff from TOP, it is noted that over the years since Lasun was elected as the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives till present, virtually all the members of TOP including the ex-Governor Rauf Aregbesola have politically dissociated from him.
“All of them stood against him in his ambition to be the state governor in 2018, and since then to the present, no meeting was held with him, except few individual friendly informal conversations on national politics with some close party friends.
“It is therefore suprised to read that a factional group was formed without his knowledge and he was made as a member of the group’s BOT.
” In addition as an adherent of progressive ideology in Nigerian party politics, Lasun’s position is that APC should be restrengthened through the collective efforts of all the stakeholders and not through the factionalization of the party.
” Lasun believes in the existing structure of our party (APC) to address all differences among the stakeholders of the party.
“He therefore calls on the Governor of Osun State- Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola to call some of his cabinet members and his supporters who are denigrating some stakeholders of the party through their provocative utterances in social media outlets, to order.
“While the factionalisation of the party does the progressive family no good, provocative statements against anybody in the party is equally counter productive.
“Lasun also enjoins the governor to brace up to strengthen the party and concentrate on good governance in the state. It is through those that our party can truly be progressive
