Makinde ex-allies’ support strengthens Alli’s bid – Oyo APC campaign

Left to right: The Oyo State APC running mate, Adesoji Adedeji; the Governorship candidate, Senator Sharafadeen Alli; the House of Assembly Reconciliation Committee Co-Chairman, Abisoye Fagade and the committee Chairman, Alhaji Mufutau Adisa during the programme in Ibadan. Photos: Ademola Adegbite.

Ayoola Babalola

The All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in Oyo State, Sharafadeen Alli, will exploit a political realignment involving some of the influential figures who helped Governor Seyi Makinde win the governorship elections in 2019 and 2023.

The Director of Strategy and Communications of the Sharafadeen Alli Campaign Organisation, Kehinde Olaosebikan, said the politicians and influential stakeholders who helped build the coalitions behind Makinde’s victories had moved into the APC and were now mobilising for Alli ahead of the February 6, 2027 election.

Olaosebikan made the assertion in an article titled, ‘2027: Oyo State Has Already Decided — Alli Is the Next Governor’, obtained by The PUNCH on Sunday, in which he argued that the movement of Makinde’s former political allies into the APC had changed the calculations for the next governorship election.

He identified former deputy governor Taofeek Arapaja and businessman Dotun Sanusi as two influential figures whose support, he claimed, contributed to Makinde’s re-election in 2023 but who were now backing Alli.

He also recalled the role of former governor and current Olubadan of Ibadanland, Rashidi Ladoja, in the coalition that facilitated Makinde’s emergence in 2019.

“Today, apart from His Imperial Majesty, Oba Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja, who must now remain neutral as Olubadan and father of all, all the architects of that coalition are in the APC, working on the frontline for Alli.

“The very men and women who made victory possible for Makinde in 2019 and 2023 are now the men and women working assiduously for the emergence of Alli as the next governor of Oyo State.

“When the builders of the old house move to build a new house, the old house empties and eventually crumbles,” Olaosebikan added.

He also cited the defection of former Minister of State for Health, Olajumoke Akinjide, to the APC, claiming that she had activated her political structures across the state to support the senator.

The PUNCH reports that Makinde’s Chief of Staff, Segun Ogunwuyi, Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Ayobami Ojo, Special Adviser on Budget and Economic Planning, Adegbola Oyeleke, and a member of the state Independent Electoral Commission, Sunday Falana, recently resigned their positions in Makinde’s administration.

Ogunwuyi was sighted alongside Alli during the unveiling of the Oyo AHEAD manifesto by the APC governorship candidate.

Beyond the defections, the campaign spokesman claimed that Alli had secured the backing of religious leaders in the state through an understanding reached during the 2023 election cycle.

Quoting the Aare Musulumi of Yorubaland, Edo and Delta, Dauda Akinola, Olaosebikan said the Oyo State Interfaith Committee had agreed to support a popular Muslim candidate for the 2027 governorship election.

“The candidature of Senator Sharafadeen Alli was ordained by Almighty Allah. The leadership of the Oyo State Interfaith Committee, through the 2023 agreement which conceded the second term to Governor Seyi Makinde, blanketly conceded the gubernatorial ticket to any popular Muslim candidate as a consensus candidate for both faiths,” Akinola said.

Olaosebikan also defended the choice of Adesoji Adedeji as Alli’s running mate, describing the pairing as a strategy to balance the political interests of Ibadan and Ogbomoso, as well as Oyo South and Oyo North senatorial districts.

He further attacked Makinde’s administration, accusing it of neglecting public infrastructure and converting the state’s heritage assets, including Trans Amusement Park, the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State and Agodi Gardens, into housing estates.

He also accused the governor of disrespecting political leaders and argued that Oyo needed a successor who would not be beholden to the incumbent.

Makinde, who is campaigning for president in 2027 on the platform of Allied People’s Movement, is backing the candidacy of Bimbo Adekanmbi to succeed him as Oyo State governor.

Adekanmbi will slug it out with Alli, who currently represents Oyo South in the Senate and had previously served as a local government chairman, Secretary to the State Government and Chief of Staff to the Governor.