Ogun: How APC, APM Supremacy Battle Disrupted Buhari’s Rally

'Dotun Akintomide
Writer
new-diplomat default image
new-diplomat default image

Ad

The Gift of Hindsight: What I Would Tell My Younger Self, By Johnson Babalola

By Johnson Babalola @jbdlaw Hindsight, they say, is life’s most generous teacher—but it sends its lessons late. It is only after the storms that the patterns become clear; only after the wrong turns that the map begins to make sense. As I celebrate another birthday today and have grown older, I often find myself reflecting…

Gasoline Prices Drop Toward Pandemic-Era Lows

The national average price of gasoline dropped below $3 a gallon over the weekend. GasBuddy has predicted that prices will go even lower in the coming weeks, with good prospects of motorists enjoying sub-$3 prices for extended periods. This drop is overwhelmingly being driven by the significant increase in oil production from OPEC throughout 2025.…

Alleged Christian Genocide Claim is Damaging Nigeria’s Image– Tuggar Laments

By Abiola Olawale Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, has voiced concern over what he described as the damaging impact of the "Christian genocide" narrative on Nigeria's international image. This is as the Minister claimed that the country's complex security challenges are being falsely simplified as religious persecution. Speaking at the Reuters NEXT Gulf Summit…

Ad

The fallout between Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun and the hierarchy of the All Progressives Congress (APC) over the choice of Dapo Abiodun as the party’s guber candidate in the state bared its fang on Monday, turning President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election rally into a reprisal ground of some sorts at the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abeokuta.

You will recall that the APC had met Amosun’s plan to have his preferred candidate, Abiodun Akinlade as the party’s flagbearer with a brick wall and instead gave the ticket to Dapo Abiodun who emerged in a primary only supported by the former Governor Olusegun Osoba-backed faction of the party.

The political temperature in the state piqued as the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC recognized Abiodun as the Ogun APC candidate, leaving Akinlade with no other option than to defect to Allied Peoples Movement (APM) to realize his ambition with the staunch support coming from Amosun.

But hell let loose on Monday as the national leader of the APC, Bola Tinubu, seemed so visibly upset that he flung his party’s flag to the ground during the presidential rally.

His probable anger was not far-fetched. The rally was threatening to descend into a free-for-all as members of the Allied People’s Movement (APM) took over the campaign rally.

Thanks to the security aides, President Buhari could have been hit by stones hurled at him when he attempted to endorse Dapo Abiodun as the party’s governorship candidate in Ogun State.

Adams Oshiomhole, the APC National Chairman, was also not spared as the crowd booed him and Abiodun during the presentation of the party’s flag to the governorship candidate.

On Monday, after Oshiomhole endorsed Abiodun’s candidature, the crowd went into a frenzy and hurled various objects at the stage.

During the fracas, as Oshiomhole walked towards Tinubu, probably as part of efforts to regain control, Tinubu, who seemed very angry, and did not speak at the event, was seen flinging the party’s flag (time 1:25 in the video) to the ground.

It was, however, not clear what he was aiming the flag at, as Oshiomhole simply walked past.

The rally ended abruptly as security operatives led the party leaders off the stage.

Ad

X whatsapp