More than 200 members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Osun State gathered on Saturday for a rally at the APC DG Campaign House in Okefia, Osogbo, where they demanded that the party leadership resume the governorship election tribunal case.
The protesters, drawn from all 30 local government areas of the state, also included some members of the Asiwaju Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji Disability Forum, AMBODIF.
Addressing the crowd, the group protest led by Comrade Ogundele Olawale said the mandate given to the APC candidate, Mr. Bola Oyebamiji, during the August 15, 2026 governorship election was taken away through fraudulent means. They recalled that the party had initially approached the tribunal with allegations of hacking of INEC servers and uploading of fraudulent results.
According to them, the case was later withdrawn after a group of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, who identified as the APC legal team, insisted it be dropped. The group questioned the authority of the lawyers to speak for the party.
“To our shock, a group of Senior Advocates of Nigeria who misidentified themselves as APC legal team came up and violently insisted that the case be withdrawn from the Tribunal. Their claim was that the Tribunal Case was unknown to the APC.
They also said the case was not bulky.
1. Are they the judges that would judge the case?
2. Are they APC officials?
3. Who authorized them to speak for the APC?
4. Is there anything like APC legal team in the APC constitution?
5. If the APC was not in the know of the Tribunal Case, what was our Deputy Governorship Candidate and other party officials doing in the Tribunal?”
“It is clear that these Senior Advocates are a group of selfish fellows who are envious of the fact that the Tribunal Case was not given to them.”
The protesters also referenced the September 24, 2026 Supreme Court judgment on the eligibility of candidates who participated in primaries of more than one political party, and said they expected the party to continue with the tribunal case.
They issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the party leadership to act on their demands, which include returning to the tribunal case and providing decisive leadership.
The group said failure to meet the demands would lead to a sit-in at the residence of Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola in Iragbiji, and a subsequent protest at the APC national headquarters in Abuja.
Talking about capable APC legal luminaries, they also rose in defense of Barrister Seyi Oyagbile, who has handled some of the party’s legal matters, warned that any attack on him would be resisted.
“Although we are very disappointed at Barrister Seyi Oyagbile s cowardly behavior of not challenging the evident illegal acts of this Senior Advocates, many of us know the tenacity of Barrister Seyi Oyagbile in the APC. He, along with his late father fought gallantly against former Gov Olagunsoye Oyinlola to retrieve the mandate of the Progressives for Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. While Barrister Oyagbile himself escaped several assassination attempts, his father, Oyagbile Ademola was arrested and detained on several occasions by the Oyinlola government. He was so badly tortured that he never recovered from his injuries until his eventual death.”
“Barrister Oyagbile has since been a conscience of the APC, often speaking truth to power, and assisting with ideas on the many court cases embarked on by the party.”
The rally ended with participants pledging their loyalty to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, added that anyone who does not want the Tribunal is an enemy of Tinubu, while they reiterate to mobilize further if the leadership does not respond within the given timeframe.
There was no official response from the Osun APC leadership or the party’s national secretariat as of the time of filing this report.