The National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ajibola Basiru, yesterday visited Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke at the Government House, Osogbo.
He said an alliance between APC and Accord Party would deliver 1.5 million votes for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election.
Basiru, who led some former APC lawmakers and party leaders during the visit, arrived at the Government House at 12:45pm and entered the governor’s private lobby for a closed-door meeting that lasted about one hour, ending at 1:35pm.
After the meeting, Basiru, accompanied by his entourage and joined by some aides of Adeleke, including Commissioner for Information, Kolapo Alimi and spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, among others, briefed reporters on the meeting.
The APC national secretary said the meeting was aimed at returning Adeleke’s earlier condolence visit, following the death of his mother, congratulating the governor on his re-election and thanking him for endorsing President Tinubu for second term.
Basiru said Adeleke had reassured him of his commitment to campaign for President Tinubu ahead of the January 16 presidential election.
He said the combined votes of APC and Accord Party in the just-concluded Osun governorship election showed the two parties had the capacity to mobilise about 1.5 million votes for the President.
He said APC scored about 46 per cent of the votes cast in the governorship election, while the combined votes of the two leading parties were close to one million.
Said he: “My visit here is threefold. First, I came to thank His Excellency and return the visit he made to my house when I lost my mother.
“It was well reported that His Excellency came to visit my family and me. He also graciously attended the burial ceremonies for my mother. He even wore a complete ‘agbada’ of the same attire that I wore. So, I came to thank him as is expected of an ‘Omoluabi’.
“I could not return the visit at that time because we were in the heat of the election and my candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, was in the race. I campaigned vigorously for his success.
“The second reason is to congratulate him on his victory in the election, even though he defeated our candidate and our party. Yesterday, our candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, also congratulated him. I also came to congratulate him.
“Thirdly, I came to thank him for endorsing my leader and our presidential candidate and to say that we are ready to work together to ensure we deliver Osun massively for President Bola Tinubu.”
Basiru said Adeleke’s support for Tinubu would go beyond endorsement, adding that the governor had pledged to participate in the President’s re-election campaign.
“The governor has said that he will not only endorse the President, he will also be on the field to campaign vigorously for President Bola Tinubu.
From the last contest, you can see that my party performed creditably well, scoring 46 per cent of the votes. Between Accord and the APC, we have close to one million votes.
“With the presidential election, I think we should be looking at working together to deliver about 1.5 million votes for President Tinubu.”
The APC chieftain said the party was working to build a broad-based coalition of
political forces across the country in support of Tinubu’s re-election.
He cited developments in Anambra, Rivers and Ekiti states as examples of efforts by politicians across party lines to support the President.
“Of course, we are working together to fuse the Accord Party structure into the campaign structure for President Tinubu.
“What we are doing is to ensure we have widespread support for President Tinubu across party lines,” Basiru said.
