The All Progressives Congress (APC), yesterday, disclosed that moves have begun on how the party will capture Oyo and Osun states ahead of the 2027 general election.
   
While disclosing that the ruling party has been calculating and strategising on how to return the entire South-West states into the APC fold, national chairman of the party, Abdullahi Ganduje, stated that the zone being that of President Bola Tinubu, will deliver 100 per cent.
   
Ganduje revealed this during a meeting of the APC South-West Governor’s Forum with the stakeholders of the party in Ondo State ahead of the November 16 governorship election.
   
The party chairman, along with governors elected under the party, urged the aggrieved members in Ondo to support Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa in the upcoming governorship election. Among those aggrieved are the governorship aspirants who competed against Aiyedatiwa in the APC primary. 
   
According to Ganduje, who announced Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, as chairman of the National Campaign Council of the party in Ondo, the party must secure 90 per cent of the votes for Aiyedatiwa, stressing that winning the state is critical for subsequent elections in the geopolitical zone.  
   
Sanwo-Olu, who is the chairman of the Southwest Governors’ Forum, disclosed that the entire party formation decided to storm the state in order to rally all stakeholders to ensure the victory of the party at the poll. On his part, Aiyedatiwa appreciated the leadership of the party for the meeting, emphasising that the party will emerge victorious at the poll.

MEANWHILE, Caretaker Committee Chairman of the APC in Rivers State, Tony Okocha, has said that the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike and the 27 lawmakers loyal to him in the state House of Assembly have not agreed to join the APC.
   
The 27 lawmakers, led by Martin Amaewhule, were said to have defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to APC on December 11, 2023. Okocha insisted that the 27 Rivers lawmakers who are currently locked in a bitter political struggle with Governor Siminalayi Fubara were not members of APC.
   
“People say Wike has decamped to APC alongside the 27 lawmakers currently fighting with Fubara. I need to make this clear to everyone. Much as I wish to have them in my fold, none of them has agreed to join us.
   
“I am the one that should know if they did. But, clearly, they have not. What the lawmakers did was a political gimmick. I tried to woo them, but they kept vacillating and did not. To defect, they must go to their wards, register and get their membership cards. None of them has done that,” he said.
   
Okocha was particularly categorical in declaring that Wike would not leave the PDP. “Wike will never leave the PDP. He has always said that PDP made him what he is. He has always said that he would remain there. He is an ardent believer in PDP. He is not likely to leave that group,” he said.