Aftermath of APC Primary: I have no ill-feelings against any colleague in the House ―Osun Speaker

THE Speaker of Osun State House of Assembly, Hon Najeem Salaam, on Friday declared that he had no ill-feelings against any of his colleagues who expressed their democratic right differently during the recently concluded All Progressives Congress governorship (APC) primary election in the state.

Salaam, who was one of the 17 aspirants that contested for the APC governorship ticket primary on July 19, scored 17, 958 votes, while the Chief of Staff (CoS) to Governor Rauf Aregbesola, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, won the party’s ticket for Sept. 22 governorship election with 127,017 votes.

In a press statement signed by chairman, House Committee on Information and Strategy, Hon Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, which was made available to Saturday Tribune in Osogbo, the Speaker said that “the party had spoken”, stressing that he was humbled by the huge support, morally and financially, extended to him by some of his colleagues in the assembly.

While congratulating Oyetola, who emerged as the standard bearer of the APC in the forthcoming September 22 governorship election, he urged him to extend hands of fellowship to all aspirants who contested with him during the primary.

Salaam maintained that there was no doubt that all the aspirants were also qualified to be the flag bearer of the party but that the system only allows only one person, saying that “note that I bear no grudge against anyone who has expressed his democratic right differently.

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He continued, “after all, we are colleagues and I am here as the first among the equals by the grace of God and your support. So, I urge us to focus on our primary assignment to whom we are elected to do and be diligent in our legislative business. Let it be known that what brings us together here is stronger than what divides us”.

“In the next few months, this assembly would be winding up and posterity will surely judge us, using our productivity and delivery. In that wise, I urge this parliament to set our binocular lenses to all areas of our oversight functions, Set up feedback mechanism on laws we had passed and structures we had consented to with a view to ensuring that our labour is not in vain”, Salaam remarked.