Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu has said the All Progressives Congress, APC will soon retrieve the party from “predators” in the state.

He also called the Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi a betrayal, and a dictator, and accused him of fostering the party’s executives on the people.

Shittu was speaking on a live radio programme on Ibadan based Fresh FM, tagged South West Political Circuit.

“Let me recall, during the congresses in Oyo state, we had two congresses; two factions of our party held parallel congresses. The governor’s faction and the Unity Forum faction, which has members four times that of the governor’s faction.

“Our party leaders at the national level by force accepted those who are not qualified as party executives.

“Eventually, what happened started from there. We are in court challenging to know the legally recognised executives of the party. The Unity Forum will certainly ensure that justice is done in the area of party congresses.

“That is what we are challenging, the emergence of the current executives. They have to be true to themselves that but for Ajimobi, they will not be there.

“Governor Ajimobi did what he did so that he could use them. He foisted on the party the people who will continue to do his bidding.

“Clearly Ajimobi is a dictator, a betrayer; clearly everything you could think of. Now that he has gone, we have to rescue all of those people away from him.

“Our lawyer unjustly terminated the cases in court. I have instructed lawyers from my chambers to apply for the revisit of those cases and I have all the support of all members of the Unity Forum to do that.

“We are all waiting to collaborate in ensuring that we retrieve our party from predators.

“We will bring everybody on board, we will retrieve our party. We will start soonest by the grace of God,” he said.

Ajimobi and Shittu had been in loggerheads over the control of the party in the state.

Shittu who contested to be the governor of Oyo state under the platform of the APC was disqualified by the party over his non-participation in the one year mandatory National Service by the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC.

The Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan had on Friday dismissed the suit brought before it by Shittu challenging the APC for his disqualification.

In her ruling, Ms Ajoku said that the case was struck out due to the fact that Mr Shittu did not file the case within the time stipulated by law.

“I must first consider the provision of Section 285 of the constitution that makes it mandatory for all pre-election matters to be filed within 14 days of occurrence.

“This particular case was not filed within 14 days, but outside the date.

“Therefore, I will not bother going into the merit of the case.

“Having failed to satisfy the dictates of the constitution, the matter is hereby, struck out,” the judge ruled.

In his reaction to the ruling, the defence counsel, Adebayo Ojo, said that the law has taken its due course.

“The judge acted by the 1999 constitution and it is a victory for democracy,” Mr Ojo, a former commissioner for justice in Oyo State, said.

The plaintiff’s counsel, Abdulhakeem Mustafa, had tendered a 38 paragraph affidavit and 13 exhibits to support his claims.

Mr Shittu had prayed the court to determine whether the action of his party to omit his name in the list of gubernatorial aspirants was lawful or a contravention of the constitution.

Joined as a respondent in the matter is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).