ABEOKUTA – The Ogun State All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential and Governorship Campaign Council has launched a scathing critique against the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), accusing it of suffering from a severe “ideas deficit” and turning Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (popularly known as Yayi) into its sole campaign manifesto ahead of the 2027 gubernatorial election.
Rebuffing recent demands by PDP chieftain Ambassador Folake Marcus-Bello, who challenged Senator Adeola to produce legacy employment records, older INEC filings, and disclosures of his private business interests, the APC stated that the opposition’s campaign strategy has degenerated into an endless mudslinging exercise.
Hon. Kayode Oladele, Chairman of the Planning Committee for the Ogun APC Campaign Council, declared that the changing line of political attacks reveals deep panic within the PDP over Adeola’s growing statewide appeal and grassroots reach across all three senatorial districts.
According to Oladele, the opposition’s narrative against Adeola keeps shifting as each preceding claim fails to gain traction among Ogun voters.
“The PDP is simply intimidated because it has been unable to match Yayi’s growing statewide appeal and grassroots structure,” Oladele stated. “What began as an Ogun West aspiration has developed into a movement with networks across the three senatorial districts, reaching local governments, wards, and communities. Rather than build a comparable structure, the opposition has made attacking Yayi the centrepiece of its campaign.”
He noted that after their earlier claims regarding Adeola’s Ogun indigeneship “hit a brick wall,” the opposition abruptly changed direction.
“The goalpost keeps changing,” Oladele noted. “Yesterday, the issue was that Yayi was not from Ogun State. Today, it is where he worked decades ago, what he wrote on an old INEC form, and how he made his money. What will it be tomorrow? Politics cannot be an endless fishing expedition in which a new allegation is introduced every time the previous one fails to resonate with the people.”
Oladele further accused the PDP and its governorship candidate, Hon. Oladipupo Adebutu, of failing to offer Ogun residents a clear developmental vision, choosing instead to focus entirely on Senator Adeola.
“If you ask them about Ladi Adebutu’s blueprint and what he intends to do differently for Ogun State, the conversation quickly returns to Yayi,” Oladele observed. “Ask why Adebutu wants to be governor, and again the answer becomes Yayi. Ask about competing ideas, programmes, and records, and somehow the discussion still comes back to Yayi.
“Instead of defining their candidate by his own programme, they increasingly define him by his opposition to Yayi. A governorship election should ultimately be a contest between competing visions for Ogun State. Senator Adeola cannot simultaneously be your opponent, your manifesto, and the principal subject of your campaign.”
Signaling an aggressive ground campaign ahead of the 2027 polls, the APC campaign chieftain affirmed that the ruling party will not yield any territorial advantage to the opposition. He vowed that the APC will carry its message directly into opposition strongholds, including Adebutu’s immediate ward and polling unit.
“We will compete vigorously for every vote, including in Ladi Adebutu’s ward and polling unit. Our campaign will go there determined to harvest votes and score big in his own ward. Ultimately, Ogun voters will examine the records, programmes, and arguments presented before them and make their own decision.”
Framing Adeola’s candidacy as a historic vehicle for political equity, Oladele described Yayi as the embodiment of Ogun West’s long-standing quest to produce a governor for the state an aspiration that has now transformed into a broad statewide coalition spanning Ogun West, Central, and East.
“Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola is no longer just a candidate; he has become a symbol of Ogun West’s long-standing quest for political emancipation a movement, an idea, and a collective aspiration bigger than any one individual,” Oladele concluded. “My message to the PDP is simple: You can fight a candidate, but you cannot fight an idea whose time has come. You can attack Yayi, but you cannot erase the aspiration he represents.”
