My attention has been drawn to a report being circulated in some section of the media about the purported emergence of another consensus candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the August 16, 2025 bye-election in Ibadan North Federal Constituency and I wish to state categorically that the public should disregard it. The truth of the matter is that Mr. ADEWALE OLATUNJI (a.k.a Murphy) remains the candidate of our great Party.
The said report is nothing but a misrepresentation of fact because all we did at the meeting which took place on Wednesday at the State Secretariat of our Party was to appeal for understanding and cooperation of the aggrieved aspirants who actually were the conveners of the meeting. Also, it must be clearly stated here that the Party Leaders who attended the meeting on invitation of the Aspirants lacked the power to substitute Party Candidate’s name and none of them, including myself, made any allusion to such a claim.
As a matter of fact, the National Secretariat of our great Party has submitted Mr. Adewale Olatunji’s name as our candidate and what we are concerned about now is how to bring everyone (including his co-contestants on board) for the purpose of working together as members of the same progressive family to win the seat which originally belonged to us.
However, I am using this medium to make a strong appeal to all the aspirants, their supporters and other stakeholders who still nurse one grievance or the other on account of the unavoidable controversies which surrounded the Consensus arrangement which produced Mr. Olatunji as our candidate to exercise patience and give room for dialogue as I can assure all and sundry that the leadership of the Party would do the needful to assuage their individual and collective feelings.
August 16 is here and we must deliver together as the bye-election means so much to us. May God grant us a resounding victory at this poll as well as those coming in the future.
Thank you.
Pharm. Olayide Abas
Chairman, APC (Oyo state)