The political crisis rocking the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in Oyo State appears to have assumed a new dimension, as council chairmen have allegedly moved to withdraw the appointments of supervisors and special advisers identified with the camp of the party’s chieftain, Alhaji Adebisi Olopoeyan.
The development, according to an affected political appointee, followed an alleged meeting of the 33 local government chairmen in the state, where the purported decision to remove political appointees loyal to Olopoeyan was said to have been reached.
The appointee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, alleged that her political association with Olopoeyan had already brought her into confrontation with the chairman of the local government where she served.
She claimed that the chairman questioned her participation in Olopoeyan’s political activities and subsequently withheld her salary.
According to her, she was later informed that the directive to remove political appointees associated with Olopoeyan was coming from “power from above”.
She said she eventually signed an undertaking before she could receive her August salary, but maintained that she had refused to resign her appointment.
The appointee further alleged that, after learning of the purported decision involving the 33 local government chairmen, she contacted the chairman of her council, who, according to her, confirmed that the directive was genuine.
She said, “They didn’t want to pay me for August. I had to beg. I have not been paid for September. They are so harsh on us.”
She also alleged that some other political appointees believed to be sympathetic to Olopoeyan were facing similar pressure in their respective local government areas.
However, it could not be independently established whether all the 33 council chairmen had implemented the alleged decision or whether the purported directive was uniformly applicable across the state.
The latest development is coming amid the lingering crisis within the APM over the forthcoming local government elections, particularly the controversy surrounding the emergence and recognition of chairmanship candidates.
Olopoeyan’s camp has maintained that candidates who emerged from the party’s August 3 primary should retain their mandates, while another set of candidates reportedly associated with the rival camp has emerged amid the disagreement.
The controversy has consequently moved to the court, with the affected parties seeking judicial intervention in the dispute.
Olopoeyan had earlier attributed the disagreement within the party to the distribution of political positions, alleging that his camp had sought its share of available positions, including chairmanship and councillorship slots, but was sidelined.
He had insisted that the issue was not about abandoning the party but about what he described as fairness and recognition of the contributions of members who had worked to build the APM.
Meanwhile, a source close to Olopoeyan claimed that the politician had commenced payment of stipends to some of the affected political appointees from his personal purse.
The source said Olopoeyan had been paying N100,000 each to supervisors and N75,000 to special assistants, adding that the payments had continued for two months.
“He pays supervisors N100,000 each while special assistants get N75,000. He has paid them for two months running,” the source alleged.
The development has further widened the political fault lines within the APM in Oyo State, with the controversy over political appointments now intersecting with the wider dispute over the party’s candidates for the forthcoming local government elections.