Osun APC accuses Adeleke of sidelining members in Tinubu campaign council inauguration

The Osun chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) says it was not briefed about the inauguration of the state’s presidential campaign committee for the re-election of President Bola Tinubu, scheduled to hold on Thursday.

In a statement, Sooko Tajuudeen Lawal, Osun APC chairman, said party leaders only learnt of the planned inauguration after Olawale Rasheed, Adeleke’s spokesperson, posted the names of the committee members on social media on Wednesday.

“We are talking about the re-election of the President of the nation under the largest democratic party in the Sub-Sahara 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,” the statement reads.

“We are reiterating the fact that we did not have the knowledge of any inauguration beyond the social media listing of some names yesterday afternoon by the spokesman of Governor Adeleke, Malam Olawale Rasheed, to the chagrin of the leaders, members and supporters of our party.

“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.”

The APC chairman said the party believes that announcing the committee members less than 24 hours before the inauguration, without prior consultation with the state party leadership, was “a ploy to create a rift between the party and the president”.

He said the party is concerned that the committee’s arrangement could cause an avoidable misunderstanding between the APC and Adeleke, who was appointed the Osun coordinator of the APC presidential campaign by the national body of the party.

He, however, noted that Osun APC is not opposed to working with other political parties to secure Tinubu’s re-election.

“Our concern is that things should be done in a proper way to achieve desired results,” he said.

“We also agree that the appointment of Governor Adeleke as the state co-ordinator of President Tinubu re-election campaign committee would boost the chances of our presidential candidate through the joint efforts and contributions of the political parties coming together.”

The party appointed Adeleke, Chukwuma Soludo, governor of Anambra; and Nyesom Wike, minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT); to its revised presidential campaign council unveiled last Tuesday.

The Imole Campaign Council (TICC) of the Osun governor subsequently endorsed the appointment, promising to deliver 1.5 million votes for Tinubu in the 2027 election.