Some prominent leaders of the All Progressives Congress in Osun State on Thursday were absent from the inauguration of the 344-member campaign council tasked with leading President Bola Tinubu’s re-election campaign in the state ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
Former Osun State Governor, Chief Adebisi Akande, however, led some other APC chieftains to the event, where Governor Ademola Adeleke inaugurated the council.
APC chieftains present included the party’s former National Secretary, Iyiola Omisore; two former Osun deputy governors, Titi Laoye-Ponle and Lekan Adewoyin; the APC National Secretary, Ajibola Basiru; Babajide Omoworare; and Chief Shuaib Oyedokun.
Other APC leaders in attendance included the party’s Osun Central Senatorial Leader, Adeoye Adelakun; former members of the House of Representatives, Ajibola Famurewa and Bukola Oyewo; former Osun Assembly Speaker, Wale Afolabi; and former NABTEB Registrar, Prof. Olu Aina, among others.
Former PDP National Secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo; Osun PDP Chairman, Sunday Bisi; and Osun Accord Chairman, Victor Akande, also attended the event.
However, the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola; the senator representing Osun East, Francis Fadahunsi; and the APC governorship candidate in the 2026 election, Bola Oyebamiji, were among the prominent party figures absent from the event.
Other notable APC leaders who were absent included the state party chairman, Tajudeen Lawal; former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Timothy Owoeye; lawmaker representing Obokun/Oriade Federal Constituency, Oluwole Oke; the Executive Director of Project Implementation at the Federal Housing Authority, Abuja, Remi Omowaiye; and former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, Adebayo Adeleke.
Addressing the gathering, Akande said securing victory for Tinubu should be the paramount consideration for all eligible voters in the South-West.
He said, “Today, we have one of our sons in Yorubaland as President of Nigeria, and he is entitled to two terms in office. We are all praying that he gets his second term. I learnt that in Osun State, Governor Adeleke has been asked to lead the people of the state to achieve two million votes on January 16, 2027.
“I remember that it is my birthday, and I hope you will all rejoice with me at the end of that day that the Yoruba son who is President of Nigeria will continue. May God give us success.”
Basiru, speaking at the event, said that since Tinubu had appointed Adeleke as coordinator of his re-election campaign in Osun, all stakeholders in the party should set aside their differences and work towards securing victory for the President.
“The governor called me yesterday evening to inform me about this inauguration. I have an engagement in Kaduna State this afternoon, but I said I must be here this morning before proceeding to Kaduna because this is my base and we must prioritise it.
“Everybody who matters in Osun politics is here today. As National Secretary of the APC, I am, by my position, the most senior political officeholder in Southern Nigeria today.
“It is in President Tinubu’s wisdom that he chose Governor Adeleke as his campaign coordinator in Osun. For us in Osun State, irrespective of our feelings, ambitions and scheming, we must abide by the vision of President Bola Tinubu and support Governor Ademola Adeleke to be successful in this exercise.
“I want to plead with all of us in Osun to come together and work with our governor, irrespective of our political party, and support him to deliver a massive victory for the President.
“There is no ambition or ego that is greater than ensuring President Bola Tinubu is re-elected. It is very imperative for us to support the President to succeed for a second term. Today, the resources now available to sub-nationals, like Osun, have made it possible for us to meet our current expenditure,” Basiru said.
Shortly before inaugurating the council, Adeleke said its primary objective was to mobilise more than the 1.5 million votes earlier promised to the President.
Adeleke described the “rainbow coalition” of Accord, APC and PDP structures in the state as strong enough to deliver an overwhelming victory for Tinubu in the next election.
He urged council members to mobilise voters in a spirit of unity and secure votes for the President.
He said, “From the pain of the past, we must unite for the prosperity of the future. From unity in diversity, we must forge a new brotherhood behind our leader, Asiwaju Tinubu.
“Our coalition is solely about Mr President, a man who means so much to Osun State and Nigeria. Our alliance is about the presidential election, in which we have all agreed to support the re-election of President Tinubu.
“As coalition partners on the presidential election, we must remind ourselves that the partnership does not extend to the legislative elections.
“While we will join hands to deliver Mr President on his party platform, coalition partners are free to work for their party candidates during the senatorial, House of Representatives and House of Assembly elections. What ties us together is the presidential, not the legislative, elections.
“Having made the above clarifications, I want to assure you that both the federal and state governments are working to resolve the local government crisis as early as possible. Discussion has reached an advanced stage. Our dear state should expect good news very soon.”
Speaking on behalf of the Osun APC chairman, Adelakun said the absent party leaders might not have been aware of the event.
“Those of us that are here, it is because we are available. We will give them feedback on what transpired here, and I am sure they are not haters of President Tinubu. I am representing the chairman of the APC in Osun because I am the vice chairman.
“This is the best we can have in the present circumstances. As APC alone, we have not won an election in the last three election cycles, and if we must give President Tinubu the required number of votes in Osun, we have to collaborate. This is why we are collaborating, and the President himself has acknowledged the collaboration,” he said.
Earlier, the Osun State chapter of the APC said it was not briefed before the announcement of the state presidential campaign committee for Tinubu’s re-election.
The party made the claim on Thursday, a few hours before the scheduled inauguration of the campaign council, in a statement signed by its chairman, Tajudeen Lawal.
On Wednesday, a statement by the spokesperson for the governor, Olawale Rasheed, had announced the plan by Adeleke to inaugurate the 344-member campaign council.
Prominent APC leaders among those listed were Akande, Oyetola, Basiru, Oyebamiji and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Foluke Etteh.
Others on the list were Omisore, Omoworare and Prof. Sola Adeyeye, Yinka Ajayi, Ponle, Akintunde Adegboye and Mumini Olabanji.
However, concerns emerged over the participation of opposition figures listed on the council, as sources in Adeleke camp and the Osun APC said no formal meeting had been held to determine how Tinubu’s re-election campaign would be managed in the state since Adeleke was appointed coordinator.
An Osun APC source, who spoke to our correspondent by telephone on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to comment, said, “The two camps have not met. We just saw the list like everyone in the state. There is uncertainty around it, but I can’t officially say what the APC reaction will be.”
Speaking on the proposed inauguration, the Osun APC chairman noted the importance of the task ahead, adding that the party agreed to Adeleke’s appointment as the state coordinator of Tinubu’s re-election campaign committee.
He said the move would boost Tinubu’s chances through the joint efforts and contributions of the political parties coming together.
He, however, expressed conviction that the exercise should be properly scheduled.
Lawal said the party “did not have knowledge of any inauguration beyond the social media listing of some names yesterday afternoon by the spokesman for Governor Adeleke, Malam Olawale Rasheed, to the chagrin of the leaders, members and supporters of our party.”
He added, “Inasmuch as we consider the re-election of the national leader of our party, President Tinubu, as a collective task which we have been working vigorously and assiduously to achieve through various means, it is our view and conviction that such an exercise should be properly scheduled.
“We are talking about the re-election of the President of the nation under the largest democratic party in Sub-Saharan Africa and not the election of a council chairman or that of a councillor, which is the reason such exercise should be approached with the highest official protocol required to ease the accomplishment of the exercise.
“Aside from the fact that not all social media news should be taken as genuine, less than 12 hours’ notice is so short that many people who would have been around are already shut out.
“We believe that listing the names of members of the state presidential campaign committee less than 24 hours before the event proper, without any prior meeting with the leadership of the party in the state, was a ploy to set the state chapter of the party against the President,” Lawal said.
He alleged that the current arrangement was designed to stoke and promote an “avoidable misunderstanding between our party and the appointed state coordinator of the campaign in the state, which we shall try as much as possible to avoid.”