The fusion in late 2010 of the former All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP and the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN in Ogun State was a necessary evil programmed to thwart the plot by then outgoing governor of the state, Otunba Gbenga Daniel to perpetuate his legacy through the now moribund Peoples Party of Nigeria, PPN. It was, however, a marriage many predicted would end in a quick divorce.

•Odunsi: We in the SDP are very confident

Even before the cutting of the cake, acrimony broke out between leaders of the former ACN and the new governor of the state, Senator Ibikunle Amosun. For about three years, leaders of the party led by Aremo Segun Osoba sought to paper over the cracks as the two tendencies in the party severally quarrelled over issues of party and state policy.

The ACN which was widely regarded for the fidelity of its members to party supremacy became news item in Ogun State on account of recurring disputes arising from the unwillingness of political office holders to adhere to the dictates of the party. Now and then intra-party arguments turned into bloody conflicts as the party members sought for supremacy.

The transformation of the ACN into the All Progressives Congress, APC did not help matters. Rather than cooling tempers, the transmutation quickly became a catalyst for the eventual breakup of the party in the state.

Gov Amosun

In the end, the incumbent deputy governor of the state, Prince Segun Adesegun, all three senators and five of the nine members of the House of Representatives elected on the platform of the party separated from the party to revive the Social Democratic Party, SDP. Remarkably, the new SDP is a reinvention of the same party through which the revered leader of the new tendency, Aremo Osoba first governed the state between 1992 and 1993.

Ahead of the forthcoming general elections, the leaders of the uprising led by the state party chairman, Chief Olu Agemo, the incumbent deputy governor, all three incumbent senators and a host of party bigwigs called on Vanguard Headquarters during which they interacted with Vanguard editors. The men during their visit gave their own narration of how they incubated Amosun’s governorship aspiration to fruition, the genesis of the crisis after the emergence of the new government, the velvet divorce with the governor and their plans to uproot him from office.

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