Stakeholders of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in the South-West have demanded the immediate suspension of the party’s national secretary, Rauf Aregbesola.
Naija News reports that the ADC stakeholders made the demand in a communique issued after an emergency zonal strategic stakeholders meeting in Ibadan, Oyo State.
They rejected the 14-man caretaker committees allegedly set up by Aregbesola across the region.
They further accused Aregbesola of acting more as an ally of President Bola Tinubu than as a national officer of the ADC, of personalising the functions of the National Working Committee, and of working to regain his lost political relevance in Osun and Lagos State, respectively
The party chieftains accused the national Secretary of creating parallel structures across the region, local government areas, and wards under the name of Omoluabi Progressive and parading officers of the group as ADC officers.
They expressed confidence in the ability of other ADC national leaders to build a united platform for the success of the party in the 2027 elections, while pledging unalloyed support to the presidential candidate of the party, Atiku Abubakar.
“The South-West leadership and stakeholders call on the national leadership of the party to immediately suspend Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as National Secretary forthwith,” the communique read.
The communique was jointly signed by the ADC South-West Chief Special Adviser, Felix Ogunwale; Head of Directorates, Yinka Olona; Ogun State Chairman, Olufemi Soluade; his Osun, Ekiti and Ondo State counterparts, Abideen Okandeji; Ekiti, Ilesanmi Omolayo; and Wole Ademoyegun, respectively.
Former South-West National Vice Chairman, Razak Eyiowuawi, said the meeting was convened by state executives, leaders and concerned members across the region to review the dwindling fortune of the party in the zone and to provide solutions to reposition it ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The communique said, “Article 22, Section 1 of the party constitution prohibits breach of the constitution, acts likely to bring the party into disrepute, disobedience to lawful directives, activities likely to cause disaffection, unauthorised publicity of party disputes, creation of parallel party organs, belonging to factional groups and collusion to convene unauthorised meetings.”
The stakeholders alleged that, “Aregbesola, using his position as National Secretary, colluded with some persons within INEC and, on July 14, 2026, the last day for uploading National Assembly candidates, infiltrated the party system and fraudulently substituted names of successful National Assembly candidates who emerged through INEC-monitored primaries with names from his Omoluabi Progressive group.”
They further alleged that Kamil Akinlade, whose name was listed by INEC as ADC senatorial candidate for Oyo Central, took the ADC nomination form without any cost.
It also accused “Aregbesola of usurping the statutory functions of the National Organising Secretary by appointing parallel primary election committees across the South-West against those appointed by the National Organising Secretary, and submitting same to INEC, thereby exposing the party to litigation.
“Aregbesola, through his splinter group, had been holding unconstitutional meetings bypassing unit, ward, local government and state structures, and that during the sale of nomination forms, he released forms to his splinter group while denying access to many members who had the capacity to deliver their states for ADC.”
They described ADC’s performance as exceptionally dismal in the recently conducted governorship elections in both the Ekiti and Osun states.
“Aregbesola did not allow a democratic process in the nomination of governorship candidates for both states, but handpicked his cronies against capable and influential individuals who were later lost to other parties.
“In Ekiti, ADC scored a total of 12,872 votes, representing 3.4 per cent of the total valid votes, in the election held on June 20, 2026, while in Osun, ADC scored a total of 17,180 votes, representing 1.7 per cent of the total valid votes, in the election held on August 15, 2026,” the communique read.
