A group of Concerned APC party stakeholders in Ibadan North Federal Constituency, Oyo State has written to alert President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and all other important party leaders in South West Nigeria on the need to intervene and mediate in the ongoing political crossfire that has enveloped the All Progressives Congress in Ibadan North Local Government Area, arising from the ill-fated and unsuccessful organization of delegates congress and bye election primary this past weekend.
This group of stakeholders are making this necessary call to ensure the APC in Ibadan North doesn’t get torn apart beyond redemption if appropriate, legitimate and open approaches are not employed by relevant party delegations in managing the Primaries process to elect a flag bearer who will represent the party in the forthcoming August 16th 2025 bye election.
The group in a statement by the Secretary, Tiamiyu Adegoke and made available to newsmen in Ibadan on Monday laments the ignoble roles been played by different layers of stakeholders in protecting particular interests from inception of INEC announcement, principal amongst which is the Minister of Power Hon. Bayo Adelabu and the acting National Party Chairman Hon. Ali Dalori in imposing a particular aspirant via undemocratic means owing to previous personal relationships, and not based on competence, open competition or free will of other aspirants.
Delegates congress which was earlier scheduled to hold on Saturday 19th July 2025 didn’t take place, with thousands of party members stranded in the sun for several hours across the twelve wards of Ibadan North. Neither Oyo State APC nor the delegate congress committee from Abuja had meaningful explanations for all aspirants in this regard, and this was the beginning of the yet to come rancour.
Later on, it was announced that a harmonized pre-approved delegate list is to be used to conduct the primaries which was now scheduled for Sunday 20th July 2025. Disappointingly, the said list was reportedly not shared with other aspirants until around 40 minutes to the commencement of the exercise, and on sighting the list, all other aspirants took immediate exception to agreement on it been used.
This was because the said delegates list was already skewed, manipulated and designed to favour just one aspirant, Hon. Adewale Olatunji Murphy, who was allocated over 40 delegates out of the entire 60 that is to vote, with other 9 aspirants been given singular or no units in the allocation respectively. This led to the reported infighting and disagreement that crippled the entire exercise and made it impossible to go ahead with.
This said aspirant, Hon. Adewale Olatunji Murphy was formerly of the ANPP block alongside the present acting National Party Chairman before the formation of the APC, and he was able to co-opt the Minister of Power into yielding support for him through the influence of Hon. Ali Dalori, with the trio jettisoning and disregarding the need for due process in their failed attempt to impose him on the party in Ibadan North.
The concerned stakeholders group is thereby calling on the prompt and needed intervention of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in restoring order and calling Hon. Ali Dalori to attention, to allow for proper, fair and just processes in conducting the Primaries to avoid catastrophic consequences for the party in this forthcoming bye election in Ibadan North.
