The Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, says the All Progressives Congress (APC) has mapped out mobilisation plans to deliver at least 10 million votes in the South-west zone for President Bola Tinubu during the 2027 presidential election.
Mr Bamidele said this at the inauguration of the 57-member Ekiti APC 2026 Governorship Election Campaign Council in Ado Ekiti, the state capital, on Monday. He is the chairman of the council.
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The South-west zone comprises Ekiti, Ondo, Ogun, Osun, Lagos and Oyo States. President Tinubu hails from the zone.
Mr Bamidele, who represents the Ekiti Central Senatorial District in the upper chamber, said the re-election of Governor Biodun Oyebanji on the platform of the APC would be a walkover for the party.
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Acknowledging that the task ahead of the APC is “huge,” the lawmaker noted the preparation is beyond Mr Oyebanji’s re-election but also about the 2027 polls.
“It is not about the re-election of Oyebanji alone. It is also about the general election, which will be held between 16 January and 6 February, 2027. It is about the future of our great party, both in the state and in the federation.
“As a party of conviction and vision, we have already set a target ahead of the 2027 elections. We have designed a mobilisation plan to deliver at least 10 million votes for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, in the six states of the South-west alone.
“As leaders of the APC, the onus now rests upon us to embark on the purpose-driven mobilisation of our members and neighbours to ensure they enrol for the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration. With a population of 3.8 million, Ekiti has only 987,647 registered voters, according to records for 2023.
“With the future elections drawing closer by the day, we need to mobilise our members, neighbours and relations not just to register as new voters, but also collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) so that they can exercise suffrage in our support in the future elections.”
Mr Bamidele said the Ekiti off-cycle governorship election scheduled for 20 June would be a referendum to affirm and confirm Mr Oyebanji’s leadership in the state.
According to him, the governor “has been consciously paddling the oars of our state with courage and vision, with confidence and synergy, and with patriotism and unalloyed commitment to the well-being of over 3.8 million residents of our state.”
Speaking at the event, Mr Oyebanji warned party members and stakeholders against overconfidence, urging them to approach the election as underdogs.
He expressed disappointment at the careless attitudes among party members, saying he had won the election, noting that effective and efficient mobilisation would materialise into victory and not just words of mouth.
He tasked his supporters to approach the election with all seriousness, by engaging in house-to-house awareness, for the party to record at least 500,000 votes.
“Before I take my seat, I just want to rest on what the leader said. I keep hearing from people that there are no problems, that if we don’t campaign, we have already won.
“I do not want us to go along that line. I want us to beware of overconfidence, of assuming that we have won. We should not. We should approach this election as if we are the underdog.
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“I am pleading with all of us: we should give it all the seriousness it deserves. Anybody that says June 20 is not important is not our friend. We have not won the election until the election is declared,” he said.
The governor added, “As the leader said, it is not just about winning. You can win and not win convincingly. We want to make a statement on June 20 so that Mr President will sleep very well in the night knowing that in 2027 there is no problem.
“Our target as a party is nothing less than 500,000 votes. It has never happened in the history of this state. Anything less than that is not a win for us. To do that, we have to bring out the people. We need the numbers.”
Mr Oyebanji expressed his profound gratitude to Mr Bamidele for accepting to chair the council, saying his commitment to his re-election bid reflects his desire to ensure that the state remains in safe hands.
He urged the campaign council to work within the tenets of the electoral law and without violence, while also calling on the opposition to remain calm and peaceful for a violence-free election.
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