The Action Group of APC flays Gbenga Aluko for disparaging Tinubu

The Action Group of the All Progressives Congress in Ekiti state has descended heavily on Senator Gbenga Aluko for casting aspersions on the political relevance of Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu within the APC.

The Action Group described Tinubu as the unshakable pillar of the party in the South West...


In a speech he made while pleading that he be “assimilated” into APC in Ekiti State, the senator, who represented Ekiti South at the upper chamber between 1999 and 2003, said, among other things, that Tinubu was already tired politically and was almost booted out of the APC.

But in its reaction to Aluko’s statement, the APC Action Group, through its spokesperson, Segun Dipe, said it was quite unfortunate that somebody who wanted to be assimilated into a party could be coming with such a divisive mindset like that of Aluko.

Dipe said in the statement: “Imagine someone still begging to join our party from dying PDP saying at our party secretariat, of all places, that those party members going to Osogbo and Bourdillion would soon regret doing so. That the man at Bourdillion was already tired and would soon be sent away from the party!”

“Making such disparaging statement as he did about the party he aspires to join and its national leader is quite unfortunate, a misadventure, mischievous and a misnomer. We are not in PDP where there is no respect for leaders and elders.”

Dipe said Aluko should remind himself that the recent achievement of Tinubu will forever remain very fresh in the memory of every Nigerian and should not have warranted such disparagement from him or anyone.

Dipe said: “Aluko wants to come and eat from a cooked food. Yet without Tinubu putting all his political arsenals to use, there would not be an APC for him to start contemplating being assimilated into today. We know Aluko’s antecedent of moonlighting and political prostitution. We know he loves to identify himself with other people’s success.”

Dipe said Tinubu was not just any other politician that could be equated to any politician within the Peoples Democratic Party where Aluko wanted to leave for “our party. For him to have made such a disparaging statement regarding our national leader therefore simply means he does not recognise our structure and cannot fit into our party.

“We are not surprised though that Aluko is making such divisive statement as we saw him doing. Or is he not the same Aluko who was quoted while in the senate as having said that he was not a Yoruba senator and was not in support of any Yoruba Agenda? Why then should we expect such a person to respect our culture and appreciate our values?”

Dipe said Aluko should however be reminded of the Yoruba adage that says a child who boasted that he would have his lunch with the head of the pigeon on attaining maturity would be debarred from growing up by the same pigeon.

He added: “Now we know why Aluko became a pariah in his PDP. He was once accused of name-dropping by his own blood brother and he was always making unguarded statements, throwing missiles from within. We don’t want such a person in our party.”

The APC Action Group thus called on Senator Gbenga Aluko to publicly apologise to Tinubu, whether he would eventually join the party or not.

Not to do so, the group said, was for Aluko to have drawn the ire against himself and his future political ambition, which would keep him running from pillar to post.

The statement said: “Gbenga Aluko started with faulty steps and wobbly legs. He is a wingless bird with perfidious ambition. If he is this arrogant when naked and running to our party, we wonder what would become of him when eventually he is well-clothed by us. Hence, his journey from PDP to APC has ended just as it began.”