Oyo APC says Folarin backs unity drive, sets one-million-vote Tinubu target

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State says former Senate Leader Teslim Folarin has joined its reconciliation effort as the party aims to deliver at least one million votes for President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election.

Party publicity secretary Olawale Sadare announced the target in a statement issued in Ibadan on Tuesday, 20 October. It is a campaign goal, not a forecast based on reported polling.

Folarin, the APC’s Oyo governorship candidate in 2023, had directed his supporters to work with other party stakeholders, Sadare said. Punch reported that Folarin publicly backed Senator Sharafadeen Alli, the party’s 2027 governorship candidate, at a gathering in Ibadan on Monday after returning from an overseas trip.

Sadare said the party had set up committees to address disagreements that followed earlier nomination contests. He credited Tinubu with helping persuade aggrieved leaders to cooperate and named Folarin, Senator Abdulfatai Buhari and Chief Adebayo Adelabu among those participating in the effort.

The spokesman said the party would continue reaching out to members who had not yet joined the reconciliation process. APC candidates, he added, would campaign on the federal Renewed Hope Agenda and Alli’s Oyo AHEAD Project.

Beyond its presidential vote target, the Oyo APC says it wants to win the governorship and other elective offices in the state. Sadare described the reconciliation as a boost to those ambitions, although the effect on the election will be determined by voters in 2027.

Image credit: Sab01Orih via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. File photo of Teslim Folarin, 2014.

Source: Punch Newspapers