A group within the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State has blamed the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy and immediate past governor of the state, Gboyega Oyetola, for the party’s defeat in the August 15, 2026 governorship election.
The group, operating under the name Osun APC Stakeholders Forum, made the allegation in an open letter to President Bola Tinubu dated August 18, three days after the election.
In the letter titled, “Why We Lost the Osun State August 15, 2026 Gubernatorial Election,” the forum described itself as a pressure group within the APC committed to the party’s interests.
While commending Tinubu for what it described as his leadership and commitment to the APC before and after the election, the group said the party lost despite the President’s support.
It placed responsibility for the defeat principally on Oyetola, alleging that the former governor concentrated federal appointments among his allies, associates and kinsmen while marginalising other important tendencies within the Osun APC.
“We respectfully submit that the principal reason for our defeat was the conduct of the immediate past governor of the state and Honourable Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola,” the group stated.
It further alleged that Oyetola “appointed cronies, allies and kinsmen to federal political positions and single-handedly selected all candidates for elective office in the state,” despite advice from party elders that he should accommodate other stakeholders.
The forum presented a list of federal appointees it alleged were drawn largely from Oyetola’s hometown and political camp.
Among those named were Oyetola himself; the APC governorship candidate and Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority, Bola Oyebamiji; his running mate, Benjamin Adereti; and Dayo Babaranti, identified in the document as Executive Director of the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation.
The letter also listed 31 local government Renewed Hope Ambassadors and 332 ward Renewed Hope Ambassadors among what it characterised as appointments concentrated within the same political tendency.
Beyond federal appointments, the stakeholders accused Oyetola of personally determining the APC’s candidates for elective offices.
According to the document, these comprised the governorship and deputy governorship candidates, three senatorial candidates, nine House of Representatives candidates and 26 House of Assembly candidates.
The forum argued that the alleged pattern of exclusion alienated the party’s grassroots and deprived it of support from critical stakeholders and communities across Osun’s three senatorial districts.
“We believe this pattern of exclusion left the party’s base disengaged and cost us the support of critical stakeholders and communities across the state’s three senatorial districts, contributing directly to our defeat on August 15,” the letter stated.
The stakeholders consequently asked Tinubu to order an immediate independent review of the Osun APC leadership structure and its candidate-selection process.
They also called for a reconciliation meeting involving Oyetola, party elders and aggrieved stakeholders under the supervision of the APC National Working Committee.
The group further requested what it described as the restoration of fairness in the distribution of federal appointments to Osun State and the constitution of a fact-finding committee to examine the conduct of the party’s primaries and complaints previously raised by party elders.
Under what it termed “A Way Forward,” the forum proposed a state congress supervised by the APC National Working Committee to reconstitute what it described as a genuinely representative state executive.
It also sought a stakeholders’ reconciliation summit encompassing the various factions, elders and interest groups, as well as a transparent framework for future candidate selection based on wider consultation rather than the preference of a single leader.
The forum additionally called for federal appointments and future candidacies to be spread across Osun’s senatorial districts and competing interests rather than being concentrated in one political camp.
The group expressed confidence that Tinubu’s intervention could reunite the Osun APC and rebuild confidence among party members ahead of future elections.
The open letter was signed by Professor Akin Adeyanju as Coordinator and Honourable Sola Ajayi as Secretary.
The allegations contained in the letter are those of the Osun APC Stakeholders Forum, and the document provided does not contain a response from Oyetola or the Osun APC leadership.
