Former Osun State Deputy Governor, Senator Iyiola Omisore, has rejected the report of the state Governorship Election Screening Committee, which disqualified him and six others last Friday.
He also urged the APC to thread softly or risk losing the August 2026 governorship election.
Seven, out of nine aspirants, including Omisore, a former Senator and deputy governor, were disqualified by the APC screening committee which cited failure to meet established guidelines for its action.
Sen. Omisore spoke with journalists soon after attending and interacting with the Election Appeals Committee members on Saturday afternoon, declaring that the All Progressives Congress (APC) would be making a grave mistake by approving their disqualification without proper review and consideration of certain fundamental issues about the aspirants.
While describing his disqualification as “the greatest joke of the year,” Omisore also said, “It is quite unfortunate that people have taken partisanship beyond politics.
“We are aware that the panel members have two, three reports. The one taken to the APC Secretariat was not the original report.
“As we speak today, none of us has seen the report or told why we were disqualified. But you can know from our pedigree that the disqualification wasn’t the right word or the best thing to do for us because we are germane in this thing.
“We are the veterans of the party! You can see for yourself that where you have disqualified people like us in any contest, where do we go from there?
“The party is pointing at failure and the chairman of the panel told us that Minister Gboyega Oyetola called him saying that they must disqualify all of us because he wants his lackey, his poster boy, Oyebamiji to be the flagbearer.”
Asked to provide evidence to authenticate his allegation against the minister, Omisore reiterated that the chairman of the election panel actually said so, adding, “Yes, he told us that he was under pressure.
Unfortunately, we are in it together.”
“We have the same reservations about the disqualification report. So far, so good all of us will meet the appeal panel individually.
But I asked them, what are the allegations, because we haven’t seen any. We haven’t been written.
“So, what are the basis of the disqualification? You said we didn’t have nominators, five per local government. But the law says, he who alleges must prove.
They should have used another method to disqualify us.”
Omisore cautioned that it would be disastrous for the APC in Osun State if the National Working Committee fails to overule the panel on the disqualification of the seven aspirants.
“As a person, I look forward to good things in my life. The NWC in their own wisdom, must act wisely. They have the list of members of the party and we have over 13,000 members of the party who are financiers. And someone is saying that all of us aspirants are guilty of the same thing, the same system, the same way.
That’s the issue and it calls for caution,” he concluded.
In another interview, Barrister Kunle Adegoke (SAN), another disqualified aspirant, said the decision cannot be allowed to stand, promising that the affected aspirants will reach out to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and ask for his intervention to resolve the matter amicably in the interest of peace and the stability of the All Progressives Congress in Osun State.
“We will take our case to the President and we are hopeful that as a listening father, he will resolve the matter to the best interest of everyone,” Barr. Adegoke remarked.