Elegbede Abiodun
• APC’s amended electoral guidelines make no provision for endorsements and recognise only consensus or direct primaries as valid pathways to candidacy.
• Party’s guidelines require all aspirants vying for a position to individually sign a consensus form, formally agreeing to the consensus arrangement before it can be considered binding on any party.
Prominent leaders and stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress in Ogun East Senatorial District have declared that the April 20 endorsement of Governor Dapo Abiodun as the party’s consensus senatorial candidate for the 2027 elections is legally void and politically illegitimate, arguing that the APC’s amended electoral guidelines make no provision for endorsements and recognise only consensus or direct primaries as valid pathways to candidacy.
The stakeholders, operating under the BATOGD Movement, a support vehicle for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Otunba Gbenga Daniel, spoke at a press briefing held at Daniel’s Sagamu GRA residence, where they formally rejected the outcome of the meeting held at Adeola Odutola Hall in Ijebu Ode.
Retired General Olumuyiwa Okunowo, who spoke on behalf of the group, said the gathering was not a legitimate APC caucus meeting but a closed-door affair orchestrated exclusively by the Governor’s loyalists. He said qualified members who arrived with valid invitations were turned away at the entrance and told the event was “a DA show” open only to those loyal to the governor.
“They should have been bold enough to make the notifications clear about their true intention, rather than using the name of our great party to drag our leaders into ratifying a premeditated show,” Okunowo said.
Former Ijebu North East Local Government Chairman, Otunba Tayo Onayemi, questioned the legal basis of the entire exercise. “Consensus, as recognised by law, must be based on voluntary agreement by all aspirants. Has the governor formally declared? Has he obtained nomination forms? Without these steps, there is no consensus,” he said.
Former Commissioner Akogun Kola Onadipe was equally direct, stating that the party’s guidelines require all aspirants vying for a position to individually sign a consensus form, formally agreeing to the consensus arrangement before it can be considered binding on any party. He said the absence of that process rendered the Ijebu Ode event worthless in the eyes of party law. “Consensus requires that all aspirants willingly agree and endorse the candidate in writing. If one person disagrees, the party must conduct direct primaries. What happened on Monday falls short of these requirements,” he said.
Beyond the endorsement dispute, the group also raised alarm over what it described as a security siege on Senator Daniel’s Ijebu Ode residence the following day. Okunowo said armoured vehicles and hundreds of police officers were deployed around the property without any justification, alleging that the Ijebu Ode Local Government Chairman misled security forces with false information to engineer the clampdown. The group said it had written a petition to the Inspector General of Police and acknowledged his prompt intervention in restoring order.
The BATOGD Movement said its community assessment and empowerment tour of the Ogun East Senatorial District, which has covered seven of the nine local government areas since September 2025 without incident, would continue as scheduled, with Ijebu Ode next on the calendar.
It would be recalled that the April 20 meeting at Adeola Odutola Hall was itself mired in controversy from the outset. Former Ogun State Governor and current Senator representing Ogun East, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, was reportedly denied entry to the venue. In a video that has since gone viral, Daniel spoke from his campaign bus, branded with the OGD/PBAT Movement insignia, confirming that he had been barred from the hall. The footage added a dramatic dimension to what his supporters had already described as a choreographed exclusion, and it has continued to circulate widely on social media ahead of the 2027 contest.
