Former National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC),Iyiola Omisore, has described his recent disqualification from the Oshun state governorship primary as “the biggest joke of the year,” citing procedural flaws and political interference within the party.
In an interview with ARISE News on Tuesday, Omisore explained that he had approached the APC appeal committee following the party’s guidelines, but the committee had yet to submit its report.
“I met with the appeal committee because the party guideline, section 21 of section 4, says any such action has to be reviewed, which I did. The appeal committee sat for two days and up to today, they have not submitted their report because there was confusion among them.
“The basis of the qualification was not established, and the appeal committee believed that it was wrongly done, poorly done and poorly executed. That is why the appeal committee could not even submit the report up to now,” Omisore said.
He criticised the disqualification process as baseless, pointing to his compliance with party procedures.
“The basis for the disqualification was unfounded because we obtained forms for 1,700 nominators and paid for them. If you are not a member of the party, they won’t sell you a form to be a delegate. We just took 155 out of it.
“So going by that analysis, it’s just a funny thing and an embarrassment to the public. It embarrasses everybody. By my own pedigree, I’m a man of systems and methods.
“When our leader, President Tinubu, won the election, he ensured all compliance was done. When I do that for more than the president, vice president, about 36 governors and many legislators, I imagine that coming this far, it’s not only an embarrassment to me, but an embarrassment to the party. So that’s it.”
Omisore also addressed allegations of political pressure from former Governor Ademola Adeleke (referred to in the interview as Iyitola) to influence the screening process.
“I said in my earlier explanation that the Oshun state lost the election in 2022. After the election, we did a post-mortem led by Professor Asike Adewoliva, Minister of Health.
“The report indicated that former Governor Adeleke made us lose the election and three or four of his cabinet members aided the loss. So it became a problem for the state all over. That is why we will not go the same route for primaries. Unfortunately, the former governor is now sponsoring one of those who aided the 2022 loss.
“The entire state leadership is against his position, and he’s trying to impose the candidate. I want to make it clear that this is not about President Tinubu. He has been fair. This is purely a state-level issue.”
He warned against repeating past mistakes ahead of future elections:
“We want to win the 2026 election. We cannot go the same way we lost in 2022. Einstein says that insanity is doing the same thing the same way and expecting different results.”
Omisore elaborated on the dysfunction within the appeal committee and the screening process:
“The chairman of the committee said there was pressure on him. They were supposed to report on the faults of others, which they could not complete. Everything became confusion.
“The issue now is former Governor versus the rest of our state leadership, as the party members are trying to impose a form of commissioner for finance on us. There is no point at this level to disqualify us; it’s an embarrassment to all of us.”
On procedural adherence and electoral law, Omisore said:
“You can see people, as politicians, became worried, maybe over certificates or nominators. But luckily for us, the nominators were in order, which is the least of what can be challenged by a former national secretary.
“The electoral act says the nomination of a candidate is administrative. Even if a party wanted to disqualify a candidate, it’s only a court of law that can do it. So what they have done is the biggest joke. If they are in a hurry, there are better methods to conclude it.”
Despite the internal turmoil, Omisore praised President Tinubu’s leadership:
“Mr. President has done well. Everything he did is transparent. The security situation is improving. We salute our leader for what he is doing. But we don’t want to bother him with this internal issue of Oshun state or manipulate issues around that place.”
Boluwatife Enome
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