Former Governor of Ogun State and the senator representing Ogun East Senatorial District, Gbenga Daniel, yesterday, said that Governor Dapo Abiodun allegedly forced party leaders of the All Progressives Congress to endorse him as a candidate to contest for the seat in the 2027 elections.
Daniel, while speaking on the development on a TVC programme, said that the party leaders, including the state Chairman, Yemi Sanusi, were allegedly coerced by the governor to endorse him as the candidate of the party.
However, reacting swiftly to the allegation, Special Adviser on Media and Strategy to the Governor, Kayode Akinmade, dismissed Daniel’s claim as “the ranting of a drowning politician,” accusing him of hypocritically opposing the same political consensus that paved the way for his emergence as the Ogun East Senatorial candidate in 2023.
Akinmade described it as ironic that Daniel is now criticising the APC’s consensus arrangement and collective decision-making process, despite having greatly benefited from the same system through Abiodun’s backing and intervention before the 2023 elections, which ultimately secured his senatorial ticket.
Relaredly, tension has engulfed the Ondo State chapter of the APC following the continued delay of the declaration of results from Saturday’s House of Representatives primaries by the National Assembly Primary Election seven-man committee, headed by Iboroma Harry Dabibi.
According to findings, disagreements among members of the committee stalled the process, amid allegations of external pressure to declare certain aspirants winners, including some earlier disqualified by the party.
The development has left aspirants and party faithful in a state of uncertainty well over 24 hours after the exercise was concluded across the state’s 203 wards.
Meanwhile, the party, in a statement at the weekend by National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, did not provide any reason for the disqualification of the aspirants.
But party sources alleged that some political actors, said to be acting on the governor’s instruction, mounted pressure on the committee to declare nine consensus aspirants as winners .
Meanwhile, the APC has produced candidates for various House of Representatives seats across federal constituencies in Oyo State ahead of the 2027 general elections, even as confusion and controversy trailed the party’s primary election in Oluyole Federal Constituency.
It was gathered yesterday that the APC concluded primaries in most constituencies across the state, with several notable politicians emerging as candidates.
Meanwhile, the party’s primary in Oluyole Federal Constituency has generated widespread controversy, with four aspirants laying claim to victory.
IN another development, two out of the six serving members of the House of Representatives have lost their return tickets at the primary election held at the weekend across the federal constituencies in Ekiti State by the APC.
Three others won, while one was declared inconclusive.
Chairman of the House of Representatives Elections Committee for Ekiti State, Wasiu Adedoyin, while making the declaration yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, said that the election of the Ekiti North Federal Constituency 1 was inconclusive because it was characterised by irregularities.
According to him, the matter would now be handled by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC.
Adedoyin, however, urged party members and stakeholders in Oye and Ikole to await further directives from the APC NWC regarding the completion of the primary process in the constituency.
However, a leading governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State, Senator (Dr) Sharafadeen Alli, has commended the peaceful and hitch-free conduct of the party’s House of Representatives primary elections held across the state at the weekend.
Alli described the exercise as peaceful, transparent and well-coordinated, saying the development further demonstrated APC’s readiness to reclaim power in Oyo State through unity, fairness and internal democracy.
The Guardian
