Choice of candidate unsettles APC

The ruling All Progressives Congress is Oyo State is unsettled and may go into the 2027 elections destabilized.

The party risks crashing like a pack of cards as immediate past Power Minister Adebayo Adelabu and his supporters are strongly disputing Friday’s endorsement of Senator Sharafadeen Alli as the party’s governorship candidate by some APC elders.

Adelabu said in Ibadan yesterday that the situation could jeopadise the party’s chances.

Adelabu, addressing some leaders and stakeholders of the party from Ibadan Southeast Local Government Area in Ibadan yesterday, wondered why those who endorsed Senator Alli were against direct primary.

He warned that the party could not afford to approach the 2027 election as a divided house, hence the need for it to adopt a selection process that would not give room for bad blood and animosity.

“Any endorsement done without the consent of the state APC chairman and its executives, together with other gubernatorial aspirants is none and void, and it won’t stand,” he said.

He dismissed Alli’s endorsement as  a joke and bastardisation of democracy.

He said: “President Tinubu is a progressive and a democrat to the core. He is fair and will not be partial to anyone.

“The President had said we should go for direct primary in choosing our gubernatorial candidate in case consensus option fails. Whoever says President Tinubu has endorsed any aspirant as the party’s guber consensus candidate is a liar.”