ABUJA, December 10, 2025 – Former National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Iyiola Omisore, has launched a scathing attack on the party’s decision to disqualify him from contesting the Osun State governorship primary, calling the move “a joke and a national embarrassment”. Speaking on Arise Television on Tuesday, the 74-year-old political heavyweight accused the screening committee of acting illegally and claimed the entire exercise was designed to impose a candidate favoured by former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola ahead of the 2026 election.
Omisore insisted that the Electoral Act clearly limits a political party’s power to arbitrarily bar aspirants who have fulfilled all statutory requirements. “There is a limit to what a party can do in disqualifying candidates. Nomination is not the prerogative of any political party,” he declared, vowing to challenge the decision through every available legal and internal party channel.
Last week, the APC governorship screening committee disqualified seven out of nine aspirants who purchased nomination forms, citing alleged irregularities in their documentation. Those barred alongside Omisore include former Deputy Governor Benedict Alabi, businessman Dotun Babayemi, insurance mogul Dr Akin Ogunbiyi, Senator Babajide Omoworare, legal practitioner Adegoke Rasheed Okiki, and entrepreneur Babatunde Oralusi. Only two aspirants — Mulikat Abiola Jimoh, a member of the House of Representatives, and Alhaji Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji, Oyetola’s former Commissioner for Finance — were cleared to participate in the direct primary scheduled for December 13.
Omisore directly linked the crisis to lingering bitterness from the APC’s shocking defeat in the 2022 governorship election, when incumbent Governor Gboyega Oyetola lost to the Peoples Democratic Party’s Ademola Adeleke. He claimed a post-election review panel chaired by former Health Minister Professor Isaac Adewole explicitly blamed Oyetola and some of his cabinet members for the loss due to poor management of party affairs and alienation of key stakeholders. According to Omisore, one of the individuals now being sponsored by Oyetola was among those the panel identified as contributing to the 2022 debacle.
“The entire state leadership is opposed to any attempt to impose a candidate,” he stressed, warning that repeating the mistakes of 2022 would hand victory to the PDP again in 2026. “We want to win in 2026, so we cannot go the same way or take the same route that led to our defeat,” he said.
The former APC National Secretary was careful to shield President Bola Tinubu from the controversy, insisting the President had remained neutral and fair to all tendencies within the party. “I don’t want you to drag President Bola Tinubu into this matter. The President is a leader of the country. He has been fair to everyone,” Omisore stated.
The disqualified aspirants have jointly rejected the screening committee’s report, describing it as politically motivated and procedurally flawed. They told journalists after appearing before the appeal panel that they were never given specific details of the alleged irregularities and were denied fair hearing. Some claimed the committee acted under intense pressure from powerful interests within the party who wanted to clear the field for a pre-selected candidate.
The development has reignited long-standing factional rivalries within Osun APC, particularly between loyalists of former Governor Rauf Aregbesola (who has since moved to the opposition African Democratic Congress) and the Oyetola camp that currently controls the party machinery at the national level. Many observers fear the mass disqualification could trigger defections and further weaken the APC’s chances of dislodging Governor Adeleke, who has consolidated power through popular infrastructure projects and improved security.
Social media has been ablaze with reactions, with the hashtag #OsunAPCDrama trending nationwide. Supporters of the disqualified aspirants have shared videos of massive crowds in Ife and Ijesha land pledging loyalty to Omisore, while others accuse the party leadership of deliberately orchestrating chaos that could benefit the ruling PDP.
As the APC National Working Committee meets to consider the appeals filed by the seven disqualified aspirants, tension continues to mount across the state. Party elders have called for urgent intervention to prevent a repeat of the internal sabotage that cost the APC the governorship in 2022. With less than three days to the primary, the outcome of the appeals will determine whether the contest proceeds as a two-person race or reopens to a full field of heavyweights.
For now, Senator Iyiola Omisore remains defiant, telling supporters in Ile-Ife on Tuesday that those who bite the finger that fed them will have their teeth broken. Whether the APC can heal its self-inflicted wounds in time to present a united front against Governor Adeleke in 2026 remains one of the biggest political questions in the South-West as the year draws to a close.
