APC Loss In Osun State Was Like A Welcome Present To Me – Soyinka

Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka has berated the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying the impunity within the party is part of the reasons the party lost the 2022 governorship election in Osun State.

He added that the APC suffered punishment in the hands of the people of Osun State for the sacrilege against former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Bola Ige who was murdered under mysterious circumstances.

Bola Ige Saga

Naija News recalls Ige, who is from Osun State, was murdered on December 23, 2001, during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

A chieftain of the APC and then Deputy Governor of Osun State, Senator Iyiola Omisore was accused of involvement in the murder of Ige.

In 2002, Omisore was arrested and detained over Ige’s murder but he pleaded not guilty.

APC Promoting Impunity

However, Soyinka in an interview with Channels TV, lamented without mentioning names that it was shocking for the APC to make someone who was implicated in Ige’s murder one of its chieftains.

He added that the loss of the Osun governorship polls was part of the APC punishment for the Ige murder, arguing that the party had become a place where those with criminal allegations run to and have their ‘sins forgiven.’

In his words, “When the results began to come in, I had just returned (from overseas). It was like a welcome present because I saw that party (APC) being punished for that act of sacrilege.”

“The two parties (APC and PDP) have become very confusing to start with. Members have moved across so much. There has been so much inter-marriage and the bloodline has diluted in many aspects, being polluted in many aspects.

“It even got to a stage where a prominent member of the APC actually articulated the sentiment of ‘Oh, come and join us and your sins will be forgiven’.

“It didn’t surprise me too much that somebody who has been so heavily implicated in the death of a prominent member of that party, Bola Ige, he is a founding member, that his memories should be so thrashed by consulting one of the prominent figures who featured in the events – forget whether he was innocent of the actual crime or not – was heavily implicated in the humiliation of that individual, that founding member of that party who was also the minister of justice of this nation.

“To actually catapult one of those crime suspects and proven contributors, and to find that that person has been given a position in that party (APC), in governance, and after the President (Muhammadu Buhari) had actually inaugurated a re-examination of that episode amongst other crimes, that is quite a bit of shock. And I mentioned at a time, that is a bit of sacrilege. And remember, this Osun is Bola Ige’s state.”

APC Loses Osun To PDP

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Sunday, July 17 declared the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ademola Adeleke as the winner of the Saturday, July 16 Osun governorship election.

Adeleke defeated the incumbent governor of the state and governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gboyega Oyetola and thirteen other candidates.

The PDP candidate won 17 local government areas in the state, while the candidate of the APC, Oyetola won the remaining 13 local government areas in the state.

The incumbent governor of the state who was defeated in the election gathered 375,027 votes, while Adeleke polled 403,371 votes to win the election.

The INEC returning officer for the Osun State Governorship election, Prof Oluwatoyin Temitayo Ogundipe gave the declaration in the early hours of Sunday.