Opeyemi Bamidele, Senate Leader, has urged the All Progressives Congress (APC) to use the outcome of the Osun governorship election to target 10 million votes for President Bola Tinubu in the South-West in the 2027 presidential election.
In a statement on Monday, Bamidele said the re-election of Osun Governor Ademola Adeleke showed that power ultimately belongs to voters in a democracy.
Adeleke, who contested on the Accord Party platform, won with 511,067 votes. APC candidate Bola Oyebamiji scored 444,815 votes, while Najeem Salam of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) came third with 17,180 votes.
Bamidele urged all candidates to accept the result and asked Adeleke to work with other parties for the good of Osun.
“The decision of the majority does not only confirm the re-election of Governor Adeleke. It equally places the burden of victory on the elected candidate,” he said.
“This burden requires him to come up with clearly defined post-election measures that will effectively first reunite the state’s indigenes and residents across all the political divides.”
He also urged Oyebamiji to congratulate Adeleke and offer policy ideas that could improve governance.
Bamidele said the APC’s defeat was not a loss, noting Adeleke’s past membership of the party and support for Tinubu.
“For me, the APC did not lose the election given the background that Governor Adeleke was coming from as a member of the APC before he defected to the Peoples Democratic Party,” he said.
“Governor Adeleke’s re-election, therefore, is not just the victory for ACCORD, but also for us in the APC.”
Bamidele said the 51.57 percent voter turnout showed the APC could target at least 60 percent across the South-West in 2027.
“With synergy in our ranks, the election outcome simply suggests that we can achieve at least 60 percent voter turnout in all South-West states in 2027,” he said.
“Second, with strategic collaboration with all political actors, the election outcome suggests that our task of mobilising 10 million votes for President Tinubu’s re-election in the South-West alone is already on the horizon if we effectively leverage the gains of the Osun poll.”
He urged the APC to review its campaign strategy and engage artisans, traders, farmers, entrepreneurs, youths, women, labour unions, civil society groups, traditional rulers and other stakeholders.
