•Aggrieved Ondo APC aspirants sheath swords, vow support for President
Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has begun a fresh round of reconciliation moves aimed at uniting its fractured ranks ahead of next year’s party congresses, with a long-term objective of reclaiming power from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2027.
The party’s Publicity Secretary, Olawale Sadare, confirmed the development to The Guardian following last Friday’s meeting between the APC’s 2023 governorship candidate, Senator Teslim Folarin, and the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, in Ibadan.
Sadare maintained that the priority of the reconciliation process is to rebuild the party’s electoral strength, restore public confidence, and “work toward returning the APC to power in 2027, while also ensuring that President Bola Tinubu receives maximum votes in Oyo State during the next general elections.”
Folarin and Adelabu, whose rivalry defined the tense pre-election atmosphere within the party, fell out in 2023 after the former clinched the APC governorship ticket, prompting Adelabu to defect to the Accord Party (AP), where he contested but eventually lost to Governor Seyi Makinde of the PDP. Both men, along with their supporters, have remained on opposite political paths since then.
The internal crisis was further compounded by the fallout from the 2023 APC congresses, which produced the late Isaac Omodewu as party chairman. Samuel Tegbe, who contested the ticket but lost to Folarin, also defected to the PDP, where he ran against APC’s Senator Abdulfatai Buhari for the Oyo South Senatorial seat—an election he equally lost.
These events deepened animosities within Oyo APC, leaving the party divided until last Friday’s meeting between Folarin and Adelabu, which many party faithful now see as the strongest signal that genuine reconciliation efforts have begun.
Sadare told The Guardian that beyond the widely publicised Folarin–Adelabu meeting, “a series of other reconciliation engagements have been taking place quietly,” adding that stakeholders across all tendencies in the party have expressed support for the renewed peace process.
However, this initiative is already facing pushback from within, as former Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu, said that although some reconciliation meetings were held under the auspices of Mrs Florence Ajimobi, widow of the late Governor Abiola Ajimobi, he was neither invited nor bothered by his exclusion.
Shittu insisted that for the Oke-Ogun zone, the discussions must be tied to zoning the 2027 APC governorship ticket to the area.
Relatedly, some members of the APC, Ondo State chapter, under the aegis of the Aggrieved Aspirants Forum, have vowed to sheath their swords in their resolve to mobilise support for Tinubu ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
The forum hinged their decision on national interest as well as what they described as improvements in the economy under Tinubu’s watch and his commitment to tackling security concerns in the country.
The Forum team leader, Taiwo Agunloye, while speaking at a gathering in Akure, the state capital, said the group had decided to wholeheartedly endorse Tinubu and pass a vote of confidence on his administration due to his strides in governance.
