By Pelumi Olajengbesi Esq.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will not help anyone rig the Osun governorship election. I say this with conviction, and I want today’s date written down, 13 January 2026. People may have access to government agency heads, but Osun will not be rigged. This is a very privilege fact I have. Tinubu will not allow election rigging anywhere in Nigeria. There is too much international attention on the Osun state election now, and INEC also understands that Osun is not the kind of theatre where you can stage-manage outcomes without consequences.
Also, Governor Ademola Adeleke currently has too many friends in government who love him and appreciate his efforts and collaboration with the Federal Government. He is loved by many top and relevant governors and heads of agencies. So be assured the Osun State election will be free and fair.
However, the reality is a very sad news for Oyetola’s lackey, Oyebamiji, whose confidence is built on federal might rather than the people of Osun State and he is not even hiding it.
Oyetola wanted to contest for Osun governor again but everyone rejected him, insisting that he is not marketable. By many accounts, key voices within the party insisted the APC needed a fresh and strong candidate who could at least attempt to match Adeleke’s popularity and mobilisation strength, or a wider strategy by which Adeleke could be brought into the APC to neutralise the contest. The APC would let it be open. Let aspirants test their capacity. Let delegates decide.
An open goalpost without a keeper was given to Oyetola’s lackey rather than a free and fair primaries. Seven respectable aspirants were disqualified, with only Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji and Mulikat Abiola Jimoh cleared to proceed. Oyetola wanted a candidate without a direction, who is lesser than him and he rejected others.
The disqualified contestants were not unknown men, not political toddlers. They were figures with history, structure, and recognisable weight, including people who sat with the President at the State House days earlier as Osun APC aspirants. Let me show you, one after the other.
- Senator Iyiola Omisore was on that list. A former Deputy Governor of Osun, a former Senator for Osun East, and a former National Secretary of the APC, he is one of those politicians whose name alone can provoke alignment or resistance, depending on who is listening. Omisore represents experience, deep networks, and the kind of long political memory that does not disappear simply because a new primary has been fixed. But yet he was disqualified for Oyetola’s lackey.
- Benedict Olugboyega Alabi also fell to the same axe. He served as Deputy Governor of Osun under Oyetola, which means he is not a stranger to the internal structure, and he is not a man who would be described as lacking proximity to the establishment. His profile is the executive kind, the quiet operator with institutional relationships, the sort of aspirant who might not shout like a street general but can still organise within the party’s machinery. But yet he was disqualified for Oyetola’s lackey.
- Senator Babajide Omoworare was another casualty. A former senator with legislative experience and a recognisable political footprint, he represented the argument that Osun APC still had seasoned hands capable of facing a serious statewide contest. His presence in the race suggested that the primary could have produced a candidate with both public familiarity and political experience. But yet he was disqualified for Oyetola’s lackey.
- Kunle Rasheed Adegoke, SAN, brought a different kind of weight. A Senior Advocate of Nigeria is not produced by noise, and a legal heavyweight in politics typically sells discipline, institutional confidence, and elite credibility, especially in a state where voters are politically aware and love competence when they can feel it. Adegoke’s candidacy carried the promise of a serious policy voice and a respectable public image for a party that needed to look competitive. But yet he was disqualified for Oyetola’s lackey. Ha! Aye yin ti baje.
- Omooba Dotun Babayemi also did not survive the screening. In the pre-primary season, he was repeatedly presented as a frontline aspirant, speaking in the language of reform and party renewal, a great mobiliser, the kind of aspirant who tried to frame his ambition as a rescue project rather than a factional conquest. His name carried familiarity within party circles, and his pitch was designed to appeal to a broader Osun frustration about stagnation. But yet he was disqualified for Oyetola’s lackey.
- Dr Akin Ogunbiyi was another notable name screened out. As chairman of a major insurance company, he represented the private-sector competence argument, the aspirant who tries to look like capacity, resources, and managerial confidence in human form. In a party searching for a candidate who could match Adeleke’s popularity with an alternative story, a candidacy like Ogunbiyi’s could have been marketed as a serious option. But yet he was disqualified for Oyetola’s lackey.
- Babatunde Hareter Haketer Oralusi, introduced in several reports as a businessman and philanthropist, with a campaign tone built around accountability, transparency, and economic transformation. He represented the outsider brand that parties often use to signal freshness, especially when they want to look different from the tired faces voters have already judged. But yet he was disqualified for Oyetola’s lackey.
Oyetola had the opportunity to mobilize all the contestants and allow them to have a consensus candidate or get them to step down for each other and pick the most viable candidate, but rather he disqualified and embarrassed them all, including former deputy governors, senators, a SAN, SAN fa! for that matter and other heavyweight figures were all cut off at once. Tinubu has done his best, Oyetola has done is worse. The public is entitled to ask what exactly Oyetola wants.
I am particularly more concerned now about the how a Senior Advocate of Nigeria was disgracefully insulted globally, and it will be there on record, just to impose a lackey. If that is possible with Oyetola’s APC primaries, it will not be possible in Osun State. There must be an election, and a free and fair one.
If Oyetola is desperate to be governor a second time, he should come to the ballot. I can confirm authoritatively that no one is willing to help Oyetola or Oyebamiji rig an election in Osun State. And I can also say that none of the APC disqualified candidates is ready to help Oyetola. They will only manage him until election day in Osun State, when they will allow him to pay for the insult and wickedness.
Pelumi Olajengbesi is an Osun-born legal practitioner.
