A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has dismissed the rumour that a cold war is raging between him and his political ally of many years, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the Nigeria’s Minister of Interior.
The rumour started after the Governor’s Advisory Council in the state announced the ban of political groups within APC in the state.
Aregbesola’s Mandate Group was one of the groups affected. The other was the all-influential Justice Forum whose chairman for many years was Alhaji Tunji Hamzat, late father of the sitting Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, until he went to become a king in Egba, Ogun State.
It was then speculated that such disbandment was indicative of a cold war between Aregbesola and Tinubu.
But Tinubu has emphatically denied the speculation and accused the author of groundless speculation.
The DEFENDER, in a bid to seek clarification on the information, sent a text to Tinubu via his media aide, Tunde Rahman, but without reply as at the time it filed a report it published and titled, “Tinubu and Aregbesola: Can the two political juggernauts really fight?”
An online newspaper (not The DEFENDER) had reported a worsening fight between the two strongmen of Lagos politics.
Perhaps our text triggered his reaction, the former Lagos State governor was later reported to have reacted via his official Twitter handle denying the report as mere speculation that is groundless.
“There is no war, cold or hot, between them. There has never been and there will never be. Asiwaju believes in him and he believes in the APC leader”, said a statement on Tinubu’s Twitter handle.
Read the full text of statement:
Today, the Governor’s Advisory Council, the highest decision-making body within the All Progressives Congress in Lagos State, passed a resolution calling for the disbandment of all factional groups within the party.
This was to promote discipline, harmony and cohesion and engender party supremacy. The APC is one united political family in Lagos.
Our attention has, however, been drawn to a report in an online newspaper alleging that the GAC’s appropriate and candid resolution had worsened a phantom cold war between Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.
This is a figment of the imagination of the news organization that authored the report. Asiwaju Tinubu remains Ogbeni Aregbesola’s leader. The former governor of Osun State has been unswervingly & wholly committed to the progressive ideology of the Tinubu political family.
There is no war, cold or hot, between them. There has never been and there will never be. Asiwaju believes in him and he believes in the APC leader.
Our political family remains strong. And we are staying focused in our commitment to building and maintaining a cohesive political party.
The GAC is a very strong body within the APC leadership structure in Lagos. Its resolution is not targeted at any particular individual or collection of individuals.
The resolution was to restate the often-stated position that the only group known to us is APC and not any of the factional groups. It was to renew the commitment to APC and its unity.
Ogbeni Aregbesola is a strong member of the political family. The GAC position does not imply any division within the group. The resolution is well-meaning and should not be misinterpreted.
To do so impulsively as the authors of the report has done is to take the frontier of reporting away from facts to the realm of groundless speculations.
