A former Senator representing Oyo Central Senatorial District, Monsurat Sunmonu has promised to pay huge amount money each to 7 out of 10 councillors in Oyo East Local Government Area to impeach the Executive Chairman, Prince Saheed Arowosaye, Premium Dailys report.
Monsurat who defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in 2022 with her supporters reportedly fell out with the council chairman, Arowosaye. The duo before now were close political associates. The ADC was part of the alliance that supported the election of Governor Seyi Makinde in 2019.
According to Premium Dailys, The plot was the latest in the series of moves by the Senator to ‘deal’ with Arowosaye, who he said the Senator was envious of his grassroots support in the local government. According to the source, Sunmonu feels threatened by the popularity of the chairman and had been going around telling people that she has the support of Governor Seyi Makinde to impeach him.
However, a councilor who attended the meeting where the plot was hatched and pleaded not to be named told our correspondent that one Mr. Sola Oluokun, the Supervisory councilor for works in Oyo South East LCDA and a loyalist of Sunmonu was the one that is coordinating the sinister move for the Senator. He revealed that out of the money promised to the councilors by Sunmonu, the part payment has been paid to them as mobilization fees with the balance to be paid on Tuesday next week when they will meet to finalize the plot. On why he attended the meeting, the source said he got notice of the meeting with no agenda. He only found out the agenda of the meeting at the venue. He said to avoid suspicion, he collected the N250,000 and pretended to be in support of the move but strongly opposed to the move, the reason he decided to expose the plotters.
He described Arowosaye as the best-ever chairman of the council and wondered why some people are plotting to impeach him. He said such a move will plunge the entire local government into crisis as people of the local government who have grown fond of the chairman will protest against it.
“The chairman is a rallying figure for our party in the local government Oyo East and Oyo town entirely For years he has been sponsoring the activities of the party. Since he became the chairman of the local government, he has always carried everyone along. His humility and kindness is unrivaled. He is part of the reason why the party enjoys huge support in the local government, because of his performance in office. The whole plot is to impeach him so that his Vice, the ADC man who was nominated by Sunmonu will become the chairman. They came from ADC and want to take over leadership of the party, we will not allow that. They are usurpers who have contributed nothing to the growth of our party. They want to take over the party, kill it and then return to ADC where they came from”.
A chieftain of the PDP in Oyo East, who spoke on the condition of anonymity said since Sunmonu and her supporters joined the party, they have been instigating crisis in the party. He accused the Senator of an overbearing attitude. The party leadership according to him has tried their best to appease Sunmonu and her supporters but to no avail.
“The lawmaker-elect for Oyo East and Oyo West state constituency was nominated by Sunmonu despite opposition from some members of the party. Sunmonu and her people refused to support our candidates for the Senatorial and House of Representatives elections, Chief Bisi Ilaka and Kamil Akinlabi respectively. After the presidential election, because of what her supporters did, many members of our party decided to work only for our leader, Governor Seyi Makinde, but Saheed, the Council Chairman intervened and pleaded with the members that they must also support Olorunpoto Rahman because the governor needs PDP members in the house to be able to execute his plans.
“It was in that meeting called by the Chairman to plead with the members of the party to support her candidate that Sunmonu walked in and started insulting Saheed and our national leader Ademola Santos who was also present. The people that gave her information about the meeting told her that the purpose of the meeting was to mobilize members against her candidate, which was not what transpired”.
Our correspondent gathered that the latest trouble started after news of the disagreement between Sunmonu and Arowosaye was published in an online newspaper. The publication reportedly angered the camp of Sunmonu, who accused the Chairman and his loyalists of being behind it to smear the image of their principal. In their response, they accused Arowosaye of anti-party activities, alleging that he met with governorship candidates of opposition parties before the March 18 gubernatorial election. Our investigation revealed that the said publication was sponsored by a former House of representatives, Hon. Monroof Akinwande.
Responding to the allegations, another chieftain of the party described such as a malicious attempt by the camp of the Senator to tarnish the reputation of the chairman. He said Arowosaye is a thorough PDP man who has remained in the party for nearly 20 years and was wholeheartedly committed to the election of the Governor and other candidates of the party and is unthinkable that he could support any opposition candidate over the governor or any other PDP candidate. He disclosed that asides from his unalloyed support for the re-election bid of the governor, the chairman took the election of Olorunpoto as his project. He took him to every nook and cranny of the local government canvassing for support for his election and also supported him with money, billboards, and posters. He said Sunmonu is ungrateful and insatiable in her quest for power.
Meanwhile, the leadership of the party in the local government has called on aides of the two parties to stop further media attacks. In a statement signed by the Chairman, Mr. Sakiru Ojo said the party has appealed to notable members such as Chief Bayo Elegbede, Mr. Monroof Atilola, Alhaji Isiaka Adebayo, and others to step in and appeal to the parties to sheathe their swords.
Attempts to reach out to the Council chairman for comments proved unsuccessful as he failed to respond to our calls and messages at of the time of this publication.
SOURCE PREMIUM DAILYS
