• Resign if you can’t secure Nigerians, SDP presidential candidate tells Tinubu
• President’s inclusive leadership strengthening democracy, says Abiodun

President Bola Tinubu, yesterday, received former Senate President and Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Primary Elections Committee, Anyim Pius Anyim, at his Ikoyi residence in Lagos.

This was as the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Adewole Adebayo, came hard on the President over the prevailing insecurity in the country, advising him to resign if he lacks the capacity to protect Nigerians.

However, Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun, while presenting the official results of the APC primaries for the Ogun East Senatorial District to Tinubu, said the President’s inclusive leadership strengthened democracy, especially in the APC.

Anyim visited the President barely 48 hours after presiding over the primary elections that returned the President as the ruling party’s candidate for the 2027 general election.

The former lawmaker’s visit was among a series of post-primary calls the President received at his Lagos residence yesterday.

According to photographs released by the State House, the President held separate meetings with Governor Abiodun, Ondo State Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa and Cross River State Governor Bassey Otu.

Anyim, on Sunday at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre in Abuja, had announced the final results of the nationwide direct primary and formally declared Tinubu the winner.

Serving as the Returning Officer and Chairman of the Presidential Primary Elections Committee, Anyim announced that total registered voters for the exercise stood at 12,643,306; total accredited voters 11,069,756; and total votes cast 11,015,665.

Tinubu reportedly polled 10,999,162 votes against his sole challenger, Stanley Osifo, a businessman from Edo State who had purchased the N100 million APC presidential nomination form, who scored 16,503 votes.

ADEBAYO, while speaking with journalists after a closed-door meeting with Governor Seyi Makinde at the Governor’s Office in Ibadan, explained that he was in Ibadan to show solidarity with the government and people of Oyo, following the invasion of three different schools by bandits in the Oriire Local Council.

Many teachers and students were abducted during coordinated attacks on Baptist Nursery and Primary School, Yawota, Community Grammar School and L.A. Primary School, Esiele, on the penultimate Friday, around 9.30 a.m.

The SDP presidential candidate further accused the Federal Government of failing in its constitutional responsibility to safeguard lives and property, describing the situation in Oyo as part of a wider national security crisis.

He said, “We came here to give solidarity to the people and government of Oyo, and to sympathise with the communities. What Oyo is going through today is what many states are going through. That’s because President Tinubu has failed to do his job as Commander-In-Chief.

“If you cannot secure your state, which is the heart of Yorubaland, what is the use of being in government at all?”

GOVERNOR Abiodun, who emerged as the APC candidate for the Ogun East Senatorial District election, expressed profound gratitude to God, Tinubu, party leaders, stakeholders and the people of Ogun East for the confidence and trust reposed in him throughout the primary process.

The governor commended the President and leader of the party for his inclusive democratic policies, particularly his insistence on direct primaries, which he said enabled members of the APC to freely exercise their franchise, while also fostering a stronger sense of belonging and ownership within the party.

He described the successful conduct of the primary election as a reflection of the APC’s unity, strength, maturity, and democratic spirit in Ogun.