The disqualified aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the governorship ticket in Osun State have said they would seek intervention of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
According to the seven disqualified aspirants, the actions of the screening committee was taken in contradictions of the party’s constitution and primary guidelines.
The disqualified aspirants are: APC former National Secretary, Sen. Iyiola Omisore, Babatunde Haketer Oralusi, Mr. Oyedotun Babayemi, Dr. Akinade Akanmu Ogunbiyi, Benedict Olugboyega Alabi, Adegoke Rasheed SAN, Okiki Adekunle, and Sen. Babajide Omoworare
The aggrieved aspirants made the declaration on Saturday while speaking with newsmen in Abuja, after they individually met with the Appeal Screening Committee led by Senator Tolu Odeniyi.
Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, Rasheed Adegoke, SAN said that the screening committee lied by alleging that they did not provide the required number of party members from the local governments to have endorsed their nomination forms.
“The screening committee claimed that the seven of us did not have the requirements of being sponsored by fully registered and financial members of the party.
“And we say this is not correct, by the documents we submitted to the screening committee, it’s evident that we all procured the people who signed for us as registered members of the party and who duly paid their membership dues.
“For instance, when we bought the form, we were required to pay for delegates dues. Delegates are members of the party shown to have been registered members and we all collected 1660 delegates, five par ward. 332 wards in Osun. So we got five registered members to stand in as delegates as required.
“These delegates apart from buying members forms for them at the amount of N8.3 million, we were required to pay their membership dues for which we paid N996,000 for all of them.
“So if we now select from among these people we have paid their financial dues, if we now select 155 to represent the 30 local governments and one area council, and these people now signed our Nomination Forms, how can you say that we did not have five members from each local government, somebody who could get five members from every ward, those it make sense”?
He equally warned that the party stands the risk of facing defeat in the August 2026 governorship election.
“I want to believe that this matter is resolved because of it’s not resolved because we want to win the governorship election in Osun, if we are not able to resolve, it might affect our chances in the election, there are no two ways about it “.
Earlier the former National Secretary of the party, Sen. Iyiola Omisore while rejecting the disqualification said it was the biggest joke of the year.
He said: “Well, that panel report is the joke of the year. It is quite unfortunate that people have taken partisanship beyond politics. But, you can know from our pedigrees that the disqualification wasn’t the right word to use for us because we are germane in this thing.
“We are the veterans! You can see for yourself that where you have disqualified people like us in any contest, where do we go from there? The party is pointing at failure and the chairman of the panel told us that he received a call that they must disqualify all of us.
“But I asked them: what are the allegations, because we haven’t seen any? We haven’t been written to. So, what is the basis of the disqualification? You said we didn’t have five nominators, five per local government. But the law says, he who alleges must prove. They should have used another method to disqualify us.
Omisore further took a swipe at the Minister of Blue Economy and former governor of the state, Gboyega Oyetola for allegedly engineering the disqualification just to pave the way for the emergence of his anointed aspirants, Bola Oyebamiji.
“You can see for yourself that where you have disqualified people like us in any contest, where do we go from there. The party is pointing at failure and the chairman of the panel told us that Minister Gboyega Oyetola called him that they must disqualify all of us because he wants his lackey, his poster boy, Oyebamiji.
He further said he hopes that the National Working Committee (NWC) will be bold enough to do the right thing by setting aside the report of the screening committee which he insisted was influenced by Oyetola.
The APC primary election for the Osun governorship election will take place on December 13.
Reacting to the next line of action by the aspirants Adegoke said, “We will meet with the President. We know he will want to hear from us. We are foundation member of APC and have contributed much into the party.”
