The struggle for the governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State ahead of Saturday’s primary election took a new dimension, yesterday, as seven aspirants on the platform of the party stepped down for Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji, who is the immediate past Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Agency (NIWA).

The development followed a closed-door meeting the aspirants held with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. However, findings by The Guardian indicate that the immediate past National Secretary of the APC, Senator Iyiola Omisore, who is also an aspirant vying for the party’s ticket, was not part of the meeting with Tinubu.

A credible source told The Guardian that the seven governorship hopefuls, after a parley with the President, announced their withdrawal from the race and resolved to back Oyebamiji as the party’s consensus candidate for the 2026 governorship election.

The aspirants are Benedict Olugboyega Alabi, Dotun Babayemi, Dr Akin Ogunbiyi, Senator Babajide Omoworare, Kunle Adegoke (SAN), Babatunde Hareter Oralusi and Mulikat Abiola Jimoh.

It would be recalled that the APC screening committee, headed by Obinna Uzor, had last week disqualified seven out of the nine aspirants, excluding Oyebamiji and Mulikat Abiola Jimoh, from participating in the primary exercise, citing non-compliance by the aspirants with their nomination by at least five fully registered and financially committed members each from across the 30 local councils in the state.

But reacting to the incident, Omisore, while addressing journalists in Abuja, had described their disqualification as a big joke, accusing the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola, of allegedly influencing the report of the screening committee.