No APC guber candidate in Oyo yet --- G6

By Seyifunmi Odunuga 

The crisis in the Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) may not be over soon as six gubernatorial aspirants on the platform of the party ahead of the 2027 elections on Wednesday, declared that the party is yet to have a gubernatorial candidate.

It would be recalled that 11 aspirants contested the recent gubernatorial primary election of the party. 

Six out of the 11 aspirants that include Engineer Oyedele Hakeem Alao; Engineer Rauf Olaniyan, Dr. Ayobami Lam-Adesina, Barrister Akeem Agbaje, Mr. Ololade Bakare and Barrister Musibau Asanike, while speaking with journalists shortly after a meeting with the reconciliatory committee set up by the party to appease aggrieved members, insisted that there is no candidate of the party in the state at the moment, stating that the party is yet to fulfill the provisions of the electoral law. 

The meeting held in Ibadan was attended by members of the committee among whom are its Co-Chairmen, Barrister Olufemi Lanlehin and Prof. Taoheed Adedoja; Dr. Bayo Adewusi and Alhaji Lekan Alli.

Alao who spoke on behalf of other aspirants, noted that the party is yet to fulfill the provisions of the electoral law in the choice of its candidate, maintaining that the six aspirants expected the party to look at their grievances and review the outcome of the primary election before a candidate can be announced. 

He said, "We have intimated the committee of our grievances and we made our position known. Just like you have asked, whether there is candidate, there is no candidate for now. For us, the party has not fulfilled the provisions of the electoral law. 

"We have made our position known to the committee and the committee is going to deliberate on it extensively. It is still a family. We are going to have a candidate at the end of the day. Whoever is picked at the end of the day, we are going to work with the person but as at now, we have no gubernatorial candidate in Oyo APC."

Asanike in his own remarks, urged the committee to consider the submissions made by the aspirants. 

He said, "We had a meeting. The intention is to have a united party. We have made our submissions known and we believe the committee will work on them. 

"We will be waiting for them to give us feedback. We want to win the presidential election, the gubernatorial election and other elections in Oyo State. That is the reason we made ourselves available for the reconcilation committee to meet us. They promised to listen to our concerns. We have made submissions that we had issues in the party and we believe they will consider our concerns."