ADC condemns attacks on Aregbesola, other Yoruba leaders for opposing Tinubu’s 2027 presidential bid
By Ishaya Ibrahim
The opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC) has condemned what it describes as coordinated attacks against Rauf Aregbesola and other Yoruba leaders working against the re-election of President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 election.
A statement by ADC Interim National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, said the mobilisation of ethnic warlords like Sunday Igboho to attack the personality of Aregbesola and other Yoruba leaders of the opposition was shameful.
He said Tinubu, while an opposition figure during the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo, was not maligned for holding a different political view from a government headed by a fellow Yoruba.
The statement reads: “It is incredible to see the zeal with which some President BAT supporters are trying to mobilise the Yoruba and South West people against Ogbeni @RaufAregbesola for merely exercising his democratic rights and choosing to stand with the Nigerian people. This is sheer perfidy and should be condemned.
“In the aftermath of the June 12 election crisis, Nigerians, in an unprecedented act of political consensus, thought that the best way to heal the country and strengthen national unity was to support a Yoruba man to become President. Nigerians overwhelmingly voted for President Obasanjo. No one challenged Obasanjo and his Federal Government more vociferously than BAT, who almost made Lagos State an alternative source of power—rightly so. Yet, no one accused BAT of treachery against the Yoruba race, even when he antagonised Afenifere, the Yoruba socio-cultural group. We therefore have strong doubts that Asiwaju would approve of what is being done in his name today.
“Attempts to demonise Aregbesola and other Yoruba leaders in the opposition are undemocratic and disgraceful. They are also inimical to the long-term political interests of the Yoruba people. President BAT is not the South West, and the South West is not him.
“The impression one gets is that Tinubu’s people are so afraid of Aregbesola that they are throwing everything at him—even recruiting Sunday Igboho, a self-declared ethnic warlord, into the fight. But the narrative they are creating is that tribal and personal loyalty is more important to the Yoruba than the national interest. This is wrong and dangerous.
“Ogbeni Aregbesola is immensely capable of fighting his own battles. But as a party, we condemn this act of intolerance and assault on freedom. It must cease immediately.”
