President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday met with former Senate Leader, Teslim Folarin, in an apparent move to rally the former Oyo State governorship candidate behind the All Progressives Congress’ 2027 candidate, Sharafadeen Alli.
The Tuesday meeting held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, according to a source closer to Folarin, is believed to be part of efforts to unite the party’s major stakeholders and resolve lingering differences within the Oyo APC ahead of the February 2027 governorship election.
Folarin, who represented Oyo Central Senatorial District in the Senate, was the APC governorship candidate in the 2023 election, in which he lost to the incumbent, Governor Seyi Makinde of the Peoples Democratic Party.
The choice of Alli by the party hierarchy stopped Folarin’s ambition for 2027 as he did not participate in the primaries leading to the emergence of the governorship candidate.
His meeting with Tinubu came amid efforts by the President and the APC leadership to consolidate support for Alli, who emerged as the party’s candidate after a contentious process that initially pitted him against several prominent aspirants, including former Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu.
Alli was eventually presented as the party’s candidate alongside his running mate, Adesoji Adedeji, at a ceremony in Ibadan on July 2.
His emergence followed an endorsement by APC leaders and stakeholders in the state, who adopted him as their consensus candidate after consultations which they said were backed by the President.
However, the process was not without controversy, as Adelabu, who resigned as Minister of Power to contest the primaries, insisted that the party had yet to make an official pronouncement on the outcome of the exercise.
Adelabu had urged party members to remain calm and reject what he described as premature claims about a consensus arrangement, insisting that the national leadership should formally declare the winner of the primary.
Alli was reported to have defeated Adelabu and other aspirants, including former Deputy Governor Rauf Olaniyan, Senator Abdulfatai Buhari, Akeem Agbaje and Oyedele Alao.
