What began as Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa’s bid to reshape Ondo State’s legislative slate through a consensus arrangement ended in one of the most sweeping reversals in APC primary history, with the party’s national leadership overturning nearly every result the governor had engineered.
The trouble started early. Aiyedatiwa had spent weeks courting stakeholders across the state’s three senatorial districts, mobilizing all 18 local governments and meeting 203 ward councillors to push his preferred candidates, most of whom favored loyalty over incumbency. He reportedly planned to retain only two sitting National Assembly members. That plan clashed directly with the national leadership’s preference for returning incumbents, and when the party’s national secretariat rejected his list outright, the governor pressed forward anyway.
It didn’t hold and aggrieved lawmakers took their case to Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, alleging manipulation by state government agents. Their petitions reached the APC’s Appeal Committee, and the National Working Committee ultimately voided the results in a letter to INEC dated June 29. The scale of the reversal was striking: two of three senatorial tickets and six of nine House of Representatives seats changed hands, with figures like Senator Adeniyi Adegbonmire and Hon. Donald K. Ojogo restored or newly installed in place of Aiyedatiwa’s picks. Only four candidates, including Hon. Isaacs Kekemeke and Hon. Omowunmi Olatunji, the lone woman among Ondo’s federal candidates, kept their tickets.
The fallout was immediate and protests erupted in Akure, reportedly backed by the governor’s camp, with commissioners and a party women’s leader seen in viral videos demonstrating against President Tinubu and the NWC, a development that reportedly drew presidential displeasure and prompted security agencies to investigate organizers.
Yet the party’s elder statesmen moved quickly to shut down the unrest. The PBAT Mandate Elders Forum, led by Chief Demola Ijabiyi, publicly endorsed the NWC’s decision, framing it as proof the APC answers to its constitution rather than personal ambition, and warned that continued protests would amount to indiscipline.
Aiyedatiwa, for his part, appeared to read the room. He convened the Governor’s Advisory Council in a closed-door reconciliation session, and GAC Chairman Chief Pius Akinyelure called for unity, noting that political disagreements are a normal part of democracy. The newly confirmed candidates echoed that tone, thanking Tinubu and party chairman Nentawe Yilwatda for their fairness while crediting Tunji-Ojo’s interventions for keeping the process from unraveling entirely.
