Despite many denials by party stalwarts and members of the Kwara State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) over the lingering crisis within its fold, there is visible evidence that things have actually fallen apart within the party.

Saturday Tribune gathered that the crisis, which has polarised the opposition party into three different factions, is not unconnected with the 2015 political ambition of the governorship candidate of the party in the state in the last election, Mr. Dele Belgore, and that of the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

Investigations also revealed that apart from the two factions controlled by Belgore and Mohammed, a third group has emerged which seeks merely to fish in the troubled waters by enriching itself while the crisis lasts.

While the faction loyal to Lai Mohammed is controlled by the ACN Chairman in the state, Gabriel Kayode Olawepo, Dele Belgore's faction is being controlled by a former Secretary of the state chapter of the party, Mr. Toyin Ayinla.

Last Tuesday, Ayinla said he had been appointed by the Kwara State ACN Caretaker Committee as the acting chairman, while Mr. Kayode Olawepo, who until the development was the chairman of the caretaker committee of party, said he remained the chairman of the party.

But Olawepo, in a reaction to the development, said the caretaker committee which he headed was still intact, and that his purported suspension and removal was illegal and null and void.

Ayinla, in a statement, declared that the caretaker committee, in what it called an urgent attempt to re-position the opposition party in the state ahead of future tasks, had passed a vote of no confidence on Olawepo. He added that the committee thereafter suspended Olawepo and appointed him as the acting chairman.

He urged members of the party to support the new leadership and assured the public of the party's commitment "to lead the collective yearnings for good governance and continuous struggle against tyranny of the few," which he noted was militating against the state's human and infrastructure development.

The statement reads: "The caretaker committee, among other things, effected leadership change by appointing Mr. Toyin Ayinla as chairman in place of Mr. Kayode Olawepo. Ayinla was until Tuesday the secretary of the committee. Olawepo has, by this decision, ceased to be the chairman of the party.

"All the decisions, including the suspension of the chairman, have been communicated to all the appropriate authorities, while members across the state are urged to work with the new leadership to move the party forward."

Reacting to his alleged removal, however, Olawepo said his suspension and removal were null and void, arguing that it was the National Executive Council of the party that could remove him.

He also said that there was no petition from any member of his constituency against him, a condition he said was necessary before his removal.

"My purported suspension and removal as the chairman of the party is a nullity. There was no action by the NEC of the party that has the sole right to dissolve the caretaker committee. The suspension is illegal because they have not acted within the constitution of the party. Also there is nobody from my constituency that (wrote a petition) against me," Olawepo said.

Olawepo's statement, entitled 'ACN Caretaker Committee Still Intact', which was made available to journalists on Tuesday, however, confirmed that all is not well within the opposition party in Kwara State.

He said further: "This is to inform all members of our great party in Kwara State and sympathisers alike that the caretaker committee in the state never met on any issue in the last two weeks, not to mention a serious issue like removing the chairman or reconstituting the caretaker committee.

"We had alerted the public to the nefarious activities of a group within the party working on the orders of a former gubernatorial candidate of the party.

The former candidate had insisted that he must be endorsed or better put 'anointed' for the 2015 ticket, and that merger is not possible in Kwara but an alliance, in which other parties would become subordinates. This is our problem with him."

At a recent joint media briefing in Ilorin to herald the amalgamation of the ACN, All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) under the newly formed All Progressive Congress in the state, Olawepo was in attendance with the Chairman of ANPP, Alhaji Taiwo Eleja, and his CPC counterpart, Alhaji Suleiman Buhari.

Olawepo had said during the media parley that the members of the ACN in the state were intact and that they were in support of the merger, so as to wrest power from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party in the state.

Shortly after the press briefing, some stakeholders in the party said they did not authorise Olawepo to speak on their behalf, and that he was no more the caretaker chairman of the party. They insisted that his tenure as the caretaker chairman had expired and that he had no locus standi to speak for the party anymore.

Also, a meeting of the party's stakeholders was held in Ilorin where all the 16 local councils were in attendance. The Chairman of the forum, Dr. Saad Omoiya, affirmed that Olawepo had been removed from office as the chairman of the party in the state.

"By constitution or convention, caretaker for any office should occupy the position within six months, and in this case, the caretaker executive council of the party has outlived its tenure, and that led to their dissolution," he stressed.

According to him, the dissolution had led to the formation of a stakeholders' forum in the party so as to salvage the party from the brink of collapse and reposition it for future success.

Omoiya, therefore, called on members of the party to join hands with the leadership of the party to move it forward in the state. He also used the occasion to urge members of the party not to accept any political position other than the governorship position in the newly formed All Progressive Congress in the state.

Omoiya said: "ACN in the last governorship election in Kwara polled over 152,000, CPC polled 75,000 and the ANPP polled 2,000. With this outcome, the ACN should be a party to present the governorship candidate under the banner of the APC, if eventually the merger works.

"We learnt from appropriate quarters that some members within the ACN have been collaborating with our leaders at the top to bring new governorship candidate from outside ACN. This will not be accepted. We will not accept the alleged plan because our governorship candidate during the last governorship election in the state, Mr. Mohammed Dele Belgore (SAN), performed well and should be given a chance to take the governorship banner under the newly formed APC in the forthcoming election in the state, so as to make the party perform well."

While calling members of the party to go back to the wards, local and state levels to woo members into the party, Omoiya said the development would assist the party to excel more in the future polls in the state.

As the dust over the party stakeholders' forum meeting outcome was about to settle, Olawepo issued another statement to counter the stakeholders' forum, saying the forum had no right to convene the meeting.

"The party hereby dissociates itself and its entire members from the stakeholders meeting and all arrangements made to that effect on the meeting," the statement, which was personally signed by Olawepo, reads, adding that the meeting was "unauthorised, illegal and divisive and should be treated as such."

Sources within the party told Saturday Tribune that the bone of contention has been on which of the three zones in the state should produce the governorship candidate in the next general election.

During the 2011 poll, Belgore (from Kwara Central Senatorial District) was fielded by the ACN, with the aim of giving the ruling PDP a tough fight in view of his pedigree in Ilorin. To some extent, this calculation helped the opposition party to garner sizeable votes in the Ilorin metropolis, but the PDP won with a wide margin, culminating in the victory of the incumbent Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed.

Now, there is the feeling in the party that a proven and tested politician from another senatorial district should produce the next candidate - which Belgore's supporters have vehemently opposed.

Also, some people from the Kwara South senatorial district, where Lai Mohammmed hails from, do not want Belgore to be given the ticket again, but that the ticket of the party for the 2015 election be zoned to the Kwara South senatorial area, for equity, justice and fair play.

This situation has split the caretaker committee of the party in the state. With the crisis within the party, many political observers believe that members of the ACN may be shooting themselves in the foot.