A faction within the All Progressives Congress in Ogun State has raised the alarm over what it describes as a deliberate hijacking of the party’s internal processes by Governor Dapo Abiodun, after the State Publicity Secretary issued invitations to a so-called stakeholders meeting that critics say was designed to rubber-stamp a pre-written agenda.
The meeting, scheduled for Monday, April 27, 2026, was convened by Mr. Olufemi Nuberu Adesanya, the party’s Publicity Secretary, who invited Ward Chairmen, Local Government Party Chairmen, Council Chairmen, State Executive Committee members, and two leaders per local government. Conspicuously absent from the invitation list: National Assembly members, former governors, founding party leaders, and heads of recognised tendencies.
Hon. Layiwola Hazzan of the APC Core Progressives Group said the procedural irregularity was not accidental. “Since when did the spokesperson of the party become the convener of its highest state caucus?” Hazzan wrote in a statement from Obafemi Owode. “This is a procedural coup that undermines the State Working Committee and turns party administration into an arm of government.”
Under the APC Constitution, statewide meetings of this scale are to be convened by the State Chairman or the State Secretary acting on the chairman’s behalf, not the Publicity Secretary. Critics argue the breach is not merely technical but strategic, designed to concentrate power in the hands of loyalists.
Hazzan alleged that the majority of invitees are on the Governor’s payroll and bound to him by what he described as “ritual oaths of allegiance.” He further alleged that the communiqué to emerge from the meeting had already been drafted by Governor Abiodun and his Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Tokunbo Talabi, whom the statement described as the “de facto governor.” The gathering, Hazzan stated bluntly, “is just the photo-op.”
The timing deepens the suspicion. With APC party primaries expected next month, the meeting is widely interpreted as an attempt by the Abiodun camp to use the party platform to consolidate its grip on the 2027 political machinery, silence internal dissent, and present a manufactured consensus as the position of Ogun APC as a whole.
The Core Progressives Group is demanding that the APC National Secretariat in Abuja and the Presidency intervene, insisting the Publicity Secretary be reined in, that any genuine stakeholders meeting must mirror the inclusive format seen during the recent endorsement of Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola as gubernatorial candidate, and that any resolution from Monday’s meeting be treated as the position of Abiodun’s faction alone, not of the entire Ogun APC.
“Ogun State APC is not an extension of Prince Dapo Abiodun and his cabinet members,” Hazzan warned. “If we normalise this kind of executive overreach, we will enter 2027 with a divided house. Abuja should take note, because the grassroots are watching.”