Ooni, Alaafin mediate rift between Aregbesola, Tinubu

The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi and Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, met with the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, on Tuesday.

Though the details of the meeting were sketchy as of the time of filing in this report, our correspondent gathered that the meeting was held to resolve the disagreement between Aregbesola and former Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu.

It was learnt that the meeting took place at the Ibadan residence of the Alaafin.

Media aide to the minister, Sola Fasure, confirmed that the meeting indeed took place without giving further details.

“It is true, he had a private meeting with them,” he told The PUNCH on the telephone.

“I won’t speculate on the content of their meeting,” he added.

When contacted, Tinubu’s media aide, Tunde Rahman, hinted that Tinubu would respect the decision of the traditional rulers.

“If you ask me what Asiwaju’s attitude will be to the reconciliation move, of course, he will welcome and support it,” he said.

The PUNCH  had reported that in the build-up to the All Progressives Congress governorship primary election in Osun State, Aregbesola attacked Tinubu verbally.

“We exalted him beyond his status and he turned himself into a god over us and we had sworn to ridicule anyone who compared himself to God. God has no competitor; He is enough to be God,” Aregbesola had said while addressing his loyalists in Ijebu-Ijesha on February 14.

Despite the strong words from Aregbesola, coupled with the crowd that attended the two major rallies his group held ahead of the primary election, Governor Gboyega Oyetola defeated Aregbesola’s anointed candidate, Moshood Adeoti.

Announcing the result, the Chairman of the governorship primary election committee and Kwara State Governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, said Oyetola won the election, having garnered 222,169 votes, against 12,921 votes that his closest challenger, Adeoti, got. He also said another of Oyetola’s challenger, Lasun Yusuf, got 460 votes and placed third.

He said a total of 408,697 voters registered in the primary election of the party, while 247, 207 voters were accredited to vote. The total vote cast and valid votes were 235,550.

Abdulrazaq said Oyetola won in all the 30 local government areas in the state.

Ahead of the meeting, a group under the name, I Believe Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, IBORA, appealed to Tinubu to forgive Aregbesola in a full-page advertorial titled, “To err is human” in Monday’s edition of The PUNCH.

“Consequently, we call on well-meaning leaders of thought, traditional rulers and religious leaders to please convene a special meeting of reconciliation, as a matter of urgent national importance for the interest of the Yoruba ethnic nationality and Nigeria in general.

“We cannot afford to go to sleep while there is fire on our roof. We appeal to our father, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to send for his estranged godson and resolve this matter within.

“We also enjoin Ogbeni to reach out to Asiwaju, as he had always done in the past on behalf of others to further cement his unflinching loyalty as a son would reach out to his father during disagreements,” part of the advert read.

 -The PUNCH