Osun APC Oyetola tensions deepen as party stakeholders petition Tinubu, blaming Gboyega Oyetola for the APC’s defeat in the August 15 election
The Osun APC Stakeholders Forum petitioned President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Abuja over the All Progressives Congress’s defeat in the August 15 Osun State governorship election, blaming former governor and Minister of Marine and Blue Economy Gboyega Oyetola for what the group described as divisive leadership and an exclusionary approach to party affairs.
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The petition, signed by Professor Akin Adeyanju, coordinator of the forum, and Sola Ajayi, its secretary, represents an early and unusually direct attempt to account for the APC’s loss to incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party.
The forum said the defeat was particularly disappointing because of what it described as Tinubu’s sustained support for the party before and during the election.
It argued that internal problems, rather than a lack of presidential backing, were central to the outcome.
The group singled out Oyetola, who served as Osun governor from 2018 to 2022 before returning to the Federal Government as a minister.
“We respectfully assert that the main reason for our defeat was the actions of the immediate past governor of the state and Honourable Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola,” the petition stated.
The stakeholders accused Oyetola of appointing friends, associates and relatives to federal political positions while allegedly taking an overly centralised approach to the selection of candidates for elective positions.
According to the petitioners, party elders had urged greater consultation, but their advice was allegedly disregarded.
The forum further alleged that appointments and political opportunities became concentrated around Oyetola’s hometown and faction, creating resentment among other parts of the party.
“We believe this pattern of exclusion alienated the party’s base and resulted in the loss of support from vital stakeholders and communities across the three senatorial districts of the state,” the group said.
The allegations have not been independently established, and neither Oyetola nor the Osun APC leadership had publicly responded to the specific claims in the petition at the time of reporting.
The petition therefore represents the position of the stakeholder group rather than a settled account of why the APC lost the election.
The electoral figures nevertheless underline the scale of the setback.
INEC declared Adeleke the winner with 511,067 votes, representing 51.88 per cent of valid votes, while APC candidate Bola Oyebamiji secured 444,815 votes, or 45.16 per cent. The 66,252-vote margin separated the two leading candidates.
Adeleke won 19 of Osun’s 30 local government areas, while Oyebamiji carried 11, according to the published results. The ADC candidate, Najeem Salaam, received 17,180 votes.
The result has prompted competing explanations within political circles. The ADC has acknowledged that it worked with Accord during the election to prevent the APC from benefiting from a divided opposition vote.
ADC national publicity secretary Bolaji Abdullahi said the arrangement was intended to avoid splitting votes that could have helped the APC.
Former presidential political adviser Babafemi Ojudu offered a similar interpretation, arguing that some ADC supporters voted strategically for Adeleke because they regarded the APC as the greater threat.
The APC itself initially indicated that it was reviewing the results before deciding whether to pursue legal action.
The party said it was examining results across the state’s 332 wards and consulting its lawyers on the constitutional options available to it.
Oyebamiji later said he respected INEC’s declaration and backed the party’s review of the election, while stopping short of congratulating Adeleke.
The internal criticism of Oyetola also comes after a bruising political relationship between the former governor and Adeleke during the campaign.
In the weeks before the election, Adeleke repeatedly accused Oyetola and the APC leadership of attempting to undermine his re-election bid.
Oyetola, for his part, remained a prominent figure in the APC campaign against the incumbent.
The petitioners have now proposed a series of reforms intended to prevent a repeat of the defeat.
Among them are an independent review of the state party leadership and candidate-selection process, a reconciliation meeting involving Oyetola and dissatisfied stakeholders, and a fact-finding exercise into the conduct of the primaries.
They also called for a state congress supervised by the APC National Working Committee to produce what they described as a more representative state executive.
Another major recommendation is a more transparent framework for future candidate selection, with broader consultation across Osun’s three senatorial districts and different interest groups.
The call for reconciliation reflects the depth of the internal concerns.
Rather than attributing the defeat solely to the popularity of Adeleke or the performance of the Accord campaign, the forum argues that the APC must confront its internal divisions if it hopes to rebuild its electoral strength in Osun.
That argument is significant because the APC’s performance was not entirely weak in numerical terms.
The party received 444,815 votes in 2026, substantially more than the 375,027 votes Oyetola received as its candidate in the 2022 governorship election.
The 2026 figure therefore represented a considerable increase in the party’s raw vote total, even though it was still insufficient to overcome Adeleke.
The political challenge for the APC is consequently more nuanced than simply replacing one candidate or blaming one individual.
The party increased its vote share in some respects but still faced a formidable incumbent, strategic voting by opposition supporters and internal disagreements over leadership and candidate selection.
The petition to Tinubu has now brought those disagreements into the open.
Whether the President acts on the recommendations remains to be seen.
For Osun APC, however, the immediate issue is clear: the party must determine whether its defeat was primarily the result of Adeleke’s electoral strength, opposition coordination, internal divisions, or a combination of all three.
For the stakeholders who signed the petition, the answer is unequivocal.
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They believe the party’s recovery must begin with reconciliation, broader representation and a fundamental review of the political structure they say contributed to the August 15 defeat.
