Six out of the 11 governorship aspirants who contested the All Progressives Congress primary election in Oyo State have rejected Senator Sharafadeen Alli as the gubernatorial candidate of the party for the 2027 general election.
The 11 aspirants who contested the gubernatorial primary election in the state are Chief Adebayo Adelabu, Dr. Adewale Kareem, Dr. Muyiwa Gbadegesin, Barrister Akeem Agbaje and Engineer Hakeem Alao.
Others are Engineer. Rauf Olaniyan, Dr. Ayobami Lam-Adesina, Prince Musibau Asanke, Senator Abdulfatai Buhari, Mr Ololade Bakare and Alli himself.
The APC in a recent statement said it has picked Alli as its gubernatorial candidate.
But six of the 11 aspirants have expressed their displeasure over the choice of Alli by the party.
The six aspirants who said they are not happy with the decision include Engineer Hakeem Alao, Engineer Rauf Olaniyan, Dr Ayobami Lam-Adesina, Barrister Akeem Agbaje, Mr Ololade Bakare and Barrister Musibau Asanike.
The aspirants claimed that the party did not follow due process in the choice of the candidate.
The aggrieved aspirants insisted that the APC currently has no gubernatorial candidate in the state, saying the party has yet to fulfill provisions of the electoral law.
The six aspirants made the declaration shortly after a meeting with a reconciliatory committee set up to appease aggrieved members of the party. The committee was led by Senator Olufemi Lanlehin and Professor Taoheed Adedoja.
One of the aggrieved aspirants, Engineer Hakeem Alao, who spoke on behalf of others, noted that the party had yet to fulfill the provisions of the electoral law in the choice of its candidate.
Alao said, “We have intimated the committee with our grievances and we made our position known. Just like you have asked, that is their candidate, there is no candidate for now. And we have not fulfilled the provisions of the electoral law.
“We have made our position known to the committee and the committee is going to deliberate on it extensively. It is still a family. We are going to have a candidate at the end of the day.
“Whoever is picked at the end of the day, we are going to work with the person but as at now, we have no gubernatorial candidate in APC.”
