By Opeyemi Adelakun
Ondo State Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa has inaugurated the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Election Campaign Council, directorates and sub-committees in the state, urging party members to unite and mobilise support for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election in 2027.
A statement issued on Saturday, October 17, by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Prince Ebenezer Adeniyan, said Aiyedatiwa, who chairs the council, described the inauguration as a strategic step towards the forthcoming general election.
The governor said the unity and coalition-building that helped the APC win power in 2015 remained essential to its electoral prospects, warning that the party’s size and national presence would not guarantee victory without internal cohesion.
He urged members to work collectively for the party’s presidential, senatorial, House of Representatives and state House of Assembly candidates, stressing that retaining power would help protect the interests of members and their communities.
“It’s only when we retain power, that is when your own individual interests and your community interests can be met. All of us must work together to achieve total victory,” Aiyedatiwa said.
He charged campaign officials to engage voters with the achievements of the Tinubu administration and his government in Ondo State.
Highlighting his administration’s record, the governor cited regular salary payments, graduate training, road and bridge construction, the provision of equipment to public hospitals and health centres, and the construction of schools and support for educational institutions.
He also defended Tinubu’s policies and projects, describing the President’s reforms as key talking points for the party’s campaign.
“The President has made the job easy for us by those reforms. There is no government that has done what Asiwaju has done in the history of presidential ruling in Nigeria,” he said.
Aiyedatiwa further cited the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway as an example of a major project he said previous administrations had not undertaken, praising Tinubu’s willingness to pursue ambitious infrastructure development.
The governor said the campaign council’s inauguration followed a directive issued to APC leaders at the national level on Wednesday, October 14, to return to their respective states and establish similar structures.
He urged the council and its committees to take the campaign across Ondo State, mobilise voters and communicate the administration’s record ahead of the election.
APC sets one-million-vote target
Deputy Governor Olayide Adelami called on party members to intensify grassroots mobilisation, setting a target of at least one million votes for Tinubu in Ondo State.
Adelami said achieving the goal would require sustained engagement with residents through house-to-house and street-to-street campaigns. He urged women, youths, elders and other groups to participate in the mobilisation drive.
The Speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly, Olamide Oladiji, also urged APC leaders and members to work towards Tinubu’s re-election, saying the state should maintain its record of electoral victories.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Governor’s Advisory Council, Pius Akinyelure, expressed confidence that the party would win convincingly, pointing to the turnout at the inauguration as evidence of members’ readiness.
“We shall win and win convincingly. We shall make more than a million votes that we are now talking about. God will be with us all,” Akinyelure said.
In his welcome address, APC State Chairman Kolawole Babatunde urged the campaign committees to reach communities across the state, engage residents and mobilise voters.
“Our campaign is going to be issue-based. We’ll be telling our people what we have done as a government,” Babatunde said.
He linked the Federal Government’s Renewed Hope Agenda with the Aiyedatiwa administration’s welfare programmes, citing the federal Conditional Cash Transfer programme and student loan scheme alongside grants and scholarships available to students in Ondo State.
Babatunde also commended the governor for strengthening party unity and supporting the APC’s campaign structure.
In separate goodwill messages, Senator Remi Okinrinboye, Chief Olusola Oke and Senator Tayo Alasoadura praised Tinubu’s economic reforms and expressed confidence in the party’s prospects. They urged members to pursue the one-million-vote target and secure victory for APC candidates across the state.
The Director-General of the campaign council, Victor Olabimtan, thanked Aiyedatiwa for his support and called on party faithful to canvass votes for Tinubu, expressing optimism that Ondo could exceed its previous vote total for the APC.
Other dignitaries at the inauguration included Secretary to the State Government Taiwo Fasoranti; former Deputy Governor Omolade Oluwateru; APC Elders’ Forum Chairman Nimbe Farukanmi; members of the state legislature; party chieftains; members of the State Executive Council; traditional ruler Oba Afolabi Obasuyi; and women and youth leaders.
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