- Safiu Kehinde
Former Managing Director of the National Inland Waterway Authority (NIWA), Munirudeen Oyebamiji, has officially emerged as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the Osun 2026 Gubernatorial election.
Oyebamiji was declared the party’s flag bearer after emerging as consensus candidate at the conclusion of the Osun APC’s governorship primary held on Saturday in Osogbo.
Recall that the ex-NIWA boss has earlier this week been endorsed by seven other aspirants who were initially disqualified from the primaries before their voluntary withdrawal from the race after meeting with President Bola Tinubu.
Oyebamiji’s victory at the primaries was affirmed by one of the former governorship aspirants, Kunle Rasheed Adegoke, who said his affirmation follows the decision of the APC national working committee.
Adegoke also said the other aspirants stepped down for Oyebamiji.
“I Kunle Adegoke with the consent of all other aspirants move the motion that Asiwaju Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji be adopted as the consensus candidate to contest in the 2026 governorship candidate. I so move.”
According to report, Senator Babajide Omoworare also seconded the motion moved by Kunle Rasheed Adegoke making Bola Oyebamiji the consensus governorship candidate of the APC.
The Chairman of the Osun APC governorship primary election committee, Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State later announced Bola Oyebamiji as the APC candidate.
NPO Reported that internal crisis had brewed within the APC prior to Tinubu’s intervention.
Oyebamiji, who was claimed to be the favourite aspirant of former Osun governor, Gboyega Oyetola, was at the centre of the October clash between Oyetola’s supporters and loyalists of former Osun Deputy Governor and aspirant for the governorship ticket, Iyiola Omisore.
Fast-forward to the aspirants’ screening exercise conducted by the APC Screening Committee, Omisore and six other aspirants were disqualified from contesting at the primaries with the committee citing gaps in their nomination documents as reason for their disqualification.
The committee’s report, submitted to the APC National Working Committee in Abuja, stated that the disqualified aspirants failed to provide proof of sponsorship from at least five fully registered and financially up-to-date party members from each Local Government Area in Osun State.
With Oyebamiji and Mulikat Abiola Jimoh emerging as the only two aspirants cleared by the committee, the Osun APC crisis lingered.
Omisore had in reaction ordered his supporters to boycott the APC primaries.
Having described his disqualification as the biggest joke of the year with the panel accused of partisanship, Omisore would in a Caveat Emptor issued by the Ajibola Famurewa, the Director-General of his support group, Osun Rescue Mission, directed his supporters to boycott the priamries.
The group also extended the boycott to supporters of other excluded aspirant as Famurewa noted that screening appeal committee is yet to release its report.
Meanwhile, Tinubu’s swift intervention doused the tension as the disqualified aspirants all declared their support to Oyebamiji following the meeting with the President.