Seven aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have dismissed their disqualification from the Osun State governorship primary, noting that the decision remains a politically motivated hatchet job.

The aspirants, led by Senator Iyiola Omisore, who fielded questions from reporters after they lodged their protest before the party’s appeal screening committee on Saturday, branded the action as “the biggest joke of the year.”

The aggrieved aspirants accused party insiders of attempting to impose a preferred candidate, allegedly backed by the Presidency.

Omisore claimed the screening panel chaired by Obinna Uzoh came under “intense pressure from powerful interests” seeking to edge out frontline aspirants like himself and six of his aggrieved colleagues.
“This is the jokest report of 2025,” he declared. “People have taken partisanship beyond politics. The committee wrote three contradictory reports—one to the secretary, one to the leadership, and another somewhere else. Even as we speak, none of us has officially received anything. They told us the Villa wanted their candidate”

Omisore alleged that the screening chairman personally informed aspirants that certain figures “from the Villa” were pushing for the disqualification of all major contenders to pave the way for a favoured aspirant.
“The chairman told us from day one that phone calls were coming from everywhere,” he said. “He told us outright that ‘they want to disqualify all of you because their candidate is from the Villa.’ So what happened is not surprising.”

According to Omisore, who served as National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the pressure appears to have eventually overwhelmed the panel.

The APC Screening Committee had earlier announced the disqualification of seven out of nine aspirants, including Omisore, former Senator Babajide Omoworare, Babatunde Oralusi, Oyedotun Babayemi, Akinade Ogunbiyi, former Deputy Governor Benedict Alabi, and Adegoke Adekunle.

The panel said they failed to meet nomination requirements under Articles 9.3(i), 31.2(ii) of the APC Constitution and Paragraph 6(c) of the party’s guidelines.
But Omisore insisted the exercise was a procedural mess. He asked, “What exactly are the allegations?”

He told reporters that the panel neither confronted the aspirants with specific allegations nor provided evidence of non-compliance.
“What are the accusations? We have not seen anything,” he said. “Even our letters were not delivered to us. How do you disqualify people without giving them the basis?”

Omisore also faulted the committee’s claim that most aspirants failed to meet the nomination threshold, arguing that the Ife zone alone had over 230,000 valid party members.

In a more startling revelation, he said the committee’s report itself admitted that the party was at risk of losing the Osun election due to the flawed screening.
“They even wrote in the report that APC is ‘likely to lose the election’ based on the screening,” he said. “So what exactly are we talking about?”

The screening report, however, included a proviso stating that the National Working Committee (NWC) could overturn the disqualification.

Asked whether he believed the NWC would save their potential candidacy, Omisore said: “I am hopeful. It was a fake screening. The NWC members know our pedigree. They know the truth.”

He declined to speculate on his next move if the NWC upholds the disqualification.
“You can’t think ahead for us,” he replied. “Let’s get there first.”