Stakeholders of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in the South-West have called on the party’s national leadership to immediately suspend the interim National Secretary, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, over alleged actions they said have depleted the party in the zone.
The call was contained in a communique issued at the end of the South-West Zonal Strategic Stakeholders Meeting of the ADC held on Thursday, November 12, 2026, in Ibadan, Oyo State.
The communique was signed by Senator Felix Kola Ogunwale, Chief Special Adviser, South-West; Alhaji Yinka Olona, Head of Directorates; Otunba Olufemi Soluade, State Chairman, Ogun State; Hon. Abideen Okandeji, State Chairman, Osun State; Hon. Ilesanmi Omolayo, State Chairman, Ekiti State; Chief Wole Ademoyegun, State Chairman, Ondo State; and Hon. Razak Eyiowuawi, former National Vice Chairman, South-West.
The meeting, which brought together state executives, leaders, and concerned members across the six South-West states, was convened to review what stakeholders described as the ADC’s dwindling fortunes in the zone and to suggest solutions to reposition the party for electoral success in the 2027 general elections.
In the preamble, the stakeholders said the South-West has a political antecedence that always sets the direction for any preferred political party’s electoral success and is critically essential to the ADC’s success in 2027
They lamented that the zone where ADC was once fully entrenched could no longer boast any electoral impact due to what they called unnecessary internal wrangling and power play among leading coalition actors.
The stakeholders alleged that the crises bedevilling the ADC in the South-West were primarily occasioned by Aregbesola, whose activities they said caused drift and disintegration in the zone.
They accused him of contravening the party constitution by creating parallel party structures across the South-West states, local government areas, and wards under the name Omoluabi Progressive, and parading its officers as ADC officers, contrary to the constitution.
They cited Article 22, Section 1 (2, 3, 8, 9, 10 & 11) of the Constitution, which they said covers breach of the Constitution, acts likely to bring the party into disrepute, disobedience to lawful directives, activities likely to cause disaffection, unauthorised publicity of party disputes, creating parallel organs, belonging to factional groups and collusion to convene unauthorised meetings.
The stakeholders further alleged that Aregbesola used his position to collude with some persons within INEC to, on July 14, 2026, the last day for uploading National Assembly candidates, infiltrate the party’s computer system and fraudulently substitute and remove names of successful National Assembly candidates who emerged through INEC-monitored primaries across the South-West and other zones, replacing them with members of his group who allegedly did not purchase forms.
They cited Hon. Kamil Akinlabi, whose name they said INEC listed as the ADC senatorial candidate for Oyo Central, as having taken the ADC nomination free.
On abuse of office, they alleged that Aregbesola plunged the party into financial crisis during membership registration by misleading the national hierarchy against the Electoral Act 2026, which they said only allows e-membership registration, by facilitating the printing of hard copies of registration materials handed to his Omoluabi Progressive members, resulting in ridiculously low registration in the zone.
They also accused him of usurping the statutory functions of the National Organising Secretary by appointing parallel Primary Election Committees across South-West states, against those appointed by the NOS, and submitting them to INEC, thereby exposing the party to litigation.
The stakeholders also accused him of holding unconstitutional meetings that bypassed unit, ward, local government, and state structures, and of releasing nomination forms to members of his splinter group while denying other members with capacity to deliver their states.
the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections held on June 20, 2026, and August 15, 2026, respectively, stakeholders described ADC’s performance as exceptionally dismal.
They alleged that his latest antics included the illegal sole appointment of 14-man caretaker committees across the 36 states in defiance of subsisting Federal High Court and Court of Appeal judgments, including in Oyo, Ekiti, Ogun, Ondo and Lagos states, in connivance with some persons they named, whom they described as foot soldiers procured to work against the ambition of the party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, in the South-West.
They further alleged that, on Aregbesola’s authority, those individuals coordinated the receipt of a list of party agents from the APC to be uploaded on the INEC portal as ADC polling agents, to deprive ADC of having its agents at polling booths.
They also alleged that he deliberately pushed court actions on behalf of the party to hinder the presidential candidate’s ambition, and linked him to former Governor Kayode Fayemi, who they said nominated Hon. Wale Omole as his South-West National Vice Chairman and has publicly declared support for President Tinubu’s second-term bid.
In their resolutions, the stakeholders said their top priority is to build a formidable, united platform that can deliver the South-West for ADC in the 2027 general elections.
They called for Aregbesola’s immediate suspension as interim National Secretary, saying he lacks decorum and understanding of the office’s functions, has not added value since his appointment, and that his tenure as interim National Secretary expired in January 2026, so he cannot validly discharge any function of the office.
They expressed confidence in other national leaders of the party to build a united platform for success in 2027, pledged unalloyed support to the presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and promised to deliver the South-West to ADC in 2027.
They also vehemently rejected the 14-man caretaker committees purportedly set up by Aregbesola across the South-West states.
