The Chairman of the Planning Committee of the Ogun APC Presidential and Gubernatorial Campaign Council, Kayode Oladele, has rejected suggestions that the party’s leaders in Abuja were behind the legal troubles of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship aspirant, Ladi Adebutu.
Oladele, a former House of Representatives member and lawyer, was reacting to a publication titled ‘Ogun 2027: The Power Play Behind Yayi’s Guber Ambition and the Forces Closing In on Adebutu’. He called its claims ‘cheap propaganda’.
He said the individuals named, including Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele, Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila and Hon. James Faleke, are APC leaders. ‘Their political support for Yayi [the APC candidate, Solomon Adeola] is perfectly legitimate and requires no conspiracy theory to explain,’ he said.
Oladele said the real issue was whether the PDP complied with the Electoral Act on the nomination and sponsorship of candidates. He cited the Supreme Court’s decision in INEC v. Zenith Labour Party, saying a party legally disabled from sponsoring candidates cannot be rescued by an aspirant’s popularity.
He said anyone alleging that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) acted under political pressure must provide credible evidence. He added that the publication itself acknowledged that no evidence linked President Bola Tinubu or the others named to any directive excluding Adebutu.
‘Abuja did not write the Electoral Act,’ he said, advising those dissatisfied with INEC’s decisions to pursue legal remedies, if available.
He said the APC would continue to engage voters on its development agenda.
Separately, two Egba chiefs, Shakiru Abiodun Jimson and Sobowale Mutiu Ayinla, donated a furnished duplex campaign office at Obada, Ewekoro Local Government Area, along the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway to Yayi. They also built a solar-powered borehole for the community and promised two branded campaign buses and a cooling van to dispense branded bottled water.
Adeola inaugurated the office and borehole, thanking the donors, whom he was meeting for the first time.
Also, wife of Ogun State Governor, Mrs Bamidele Abiodun,
Yayi’s wife, Mrs Temitope Adeola, former Speaker of the Ogun Assembly, Alhaja Salimot Makanjuola Badru and others have urged women to vote massively for President Bola Tinubu, Adeola and other APC candidates in the forthcoming election.
They spoke yesterday in Abeokuta at the Ogun State Political Women Stakeholders Forum, themed ‘Stronger Together: Women Unite for Victory, One Woman, Ten Votes’.
Mrs Adeola urged women to move beyond attending political gatherings and take active part in politics. She said Ogun had 1,365,797 registered female voters in 2023, 50.81 per cent of 2,688,305 voters. INEC confirmed in October that the state now has 3,037,981 registered voters, she said, with women at par with men.
Mrs Abiodun urged women to turn their numbers into political power and set three commitments: unity, mobilisation and discipline. ‘One woman, 10 votes. Do not speak to 10 people, win them over, mobilise them, and lead them to the polls for the APC,’ she said.
APC deputy governorship candidate, Alhaja Abiodun Adegunwa, said women’s demands would be met if Yayi is elected.