The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said it was not consulted before Governor Ademola Adeleke announced the membership of the state campaign council for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election.
NEWSNGR reports that the party made this known on Thursday, a few hours before the council’s inauguration, in a statement signed by its Chairman, Tajudeen Lawal.
The governor’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, released a statement on Wednesday announcing Adeleke’s plan to inaugurate the 344-member council.
Prominent APC figures named on the list included a former governor of the state, Chief Bisi Akande; the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola; the APC National Secretary, Ajibola Basiru; the party’s 2026 governorship candidate, Bola Oyebamiji; and a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Patricia Etteh.
Others were Iyiola Omisore, Babajide Omoworare, Prof Sola Adeyeye, Yinka Ajayi, Titi Laoye-Ponle, Akintunde Adegboye and Mumini Olabanji.
However, sources in both the governor’s camp and the state APC said no formal meeting had been held to agree on how the President’s campaign would be run in the state since Adeleke was named coordinator.
An APC source, who spoke with Punch on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to comment, said party members were caught unawares.
“The two camps have not met. We just saw the list like everyone in the state. There is uncertainty around it, but I can’t officially say what the APC reaction will be,” he said.
Lawal said in the statement that the party had accepted Adeleke’s appointment as coordinator and believed cooperation among the various parties could boost Tinubu’s chances in the state.
He, however, said the party learned of the inauguration only through names posted on social media by the governor’s spokesman, “to the chagrin of the leaders, members and supporters of our party.”
The APC chairman argued that re-electing a sitting President required proper planning and official protocol.
“We are talking about the re-election of the President of the nation under the largest democratic party in Sub-Saharan Africa and not the election of a council chairman or that of a councillor, which is the reason such exercise should be approached with the highest official protocol required to ease the accomplishment of the exercise,” he said.
Lawal also complained that the notice was too short for many party leaders to arrange to attend.
“Aside from the fact that not all social media news should be taken as genuine, less than 12 hours’ notice is so short that many people who would have been around are already shut out,” he stated.
The party chairman alleged that the way the list was released was meant to pit the state chapter against the President.
“We believe that listing the names of members of the state presidential campaign committee less than 24 hours before the event proper, without any prior meeting with the leadership of the party in the state, was a ploy to set the state chapter of the party against the President,” he said.
He added that the arrangement could cause an “avoidable misunderstanding between our party and the appointed state coordinator of the campaign in the state, which we shall try as much as possible to avoid.”
