The President’s late-night meeting with sidelined party leaders comes as APC seeks to close ranks behind Bola Oyebamiji before the August 15 election

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Monday, August 3, 2026, summoned about 76 All Progressives Congress leaders from Osun State to the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja, in a decisive attempt to calm internal tensions and unite the party behind its governorship candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, ahead of the August 15 election.

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The late-night meeting followed an intelligence report reportedly presented by National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu, which warned that discontent among influential APC figures in Osun could undermine the party’s campaign if left unresolved.

Multiple attendees told The PUNCH that several leaders felt excluded from party affairs and the campaign structure.

The meeting comes at a particularly sensitive moment for the APC. The Independent National Electoral Commission has fixed the Osun governorship election for Saturday, August 15, with the poll coming less than two weeks after the Villa gathering.

According to accounts from participants, the Presidency asked APC National Secretary Ajibola Basiru to coordinate the affected leaders and arrange their movement to Abuja. Several were flown from Ibadan, while others travelled from Lagos.

Among those said to have attended were former House of Representatives Speaker Olubunmi Ete, former Osun House of Assembly Speakers Mojeed Alabi, Adejare Bello and Wale Afolabi, as well as former presidential aide Babajide Omoworare and other prominent party figures.

The gathering reportedly provided an unusually candid setting for party leaders to air grievances directly before Tinubu.

One former lawmaker who attended said the meeting involved about 76 APC figures who had felt sidelined and saw the opportunity as a chance to explain their concerns to the President.

“We were around 76 in number at the meeting. It was an opportunity for the President to know the truth about what is happening in Osun State,” the former lawmaker said.

A major complaint centred on the distribution of federal appointments linked to Osun.

The leaders reportedly told Tinubu that many appointments had gone largely to members associated with the political camp of former Osun Governor Adegboyega Oyetola, popularly known as the IleriOluwa camp.

According to the participant, the President acknowledged the concern but cautioned against allowing internal disagreements to damage the party’s electoral prospects.

“Mr President told us that we shouldn’t throw away the bathwater with the baby,” the former lawmaker said, adding that Tinubu stressed that the APC would ultimately suffer if it lost the election.

The President also reportedly expressed disappointment over the APC’s previous electoral setbacks in Osun, particularly the 2022 governorship election and the 2023 general election.

Tinubu was quoted as telling the leaders that Oyetola had possessed substantial political resources during his failed re-election bid but had been unable to convert them into victory.

“Oyetola had all the resources to win his re-election. But he couldn’t use them. Though he lost the election, I appointed him as a minister.

In the real sense, it is the party that lost. So, go and work for the victory of the party,” the former lawmaker quoted Tinubu as saying.

The message was clear: whatever grievances existed within the APC would have to be managed without compromising the immediate electoral objective.

Another participant described the meeting as productive, saying the leaders left satisfied with the President’s response.

The concern, according to the source, was not simply about appointments but whether an APC government in Osun would be sufficiently inclusive if Oyebamiji wins.

The President reportedly sought to reassure them that federal opportunities would remain available beyond the existing appointments.

“You don’t need to worry yourself.

If the appointments in Osun are exhausted, there are enough rooms to accommodate everybody from Osun at the federal level. So, go and unite and deliver Osun,” the participant quoted Tinubu as saying.

The intervention has placed party cohesion at the centre of the APC’s final campaign push.

Basiru, who represents Osun Central in the political structure of the party and has been publicly active in the campaign, was reportedly instrumental in bringing the group together.

A source close to the national secretary said Basiru wanted the election treated as a collective project rather than one controlled by individual factions.

“The reality is that you cannot go into an election when there is disquiet in the party,” the source said, adding that Basiru had campaigned for Oyebamiji and had been involved in grassroots mobilisation.

The APC campaign has continued to project confidence in Oyebamiji, who is widely known as AMBO.

In June, the candidate described himself as Tinubu’s only “anointed and endorsed” candidate for the Osun election, while dismissing reports that the President had backed incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke.

The August 15 contest pits Oyebamiji against Adeleke and other candidates in a race that has attracted heightened national attention.

INEC’s final list confirmed six political parties in the governorship contest, with Adeleke seeking re-election.

Adeleke, who now contests under the Accord platform, has separately maintained confidence in his chances and urged residents to reject what he has described as attempts to create fear around the election.

The Osun State Government has repeatedly stressed that votes must count, describing the election as an important test of Nigeria’s democratic process.

The political temperature rose further at the weekend after the Accord Party accused the APC of allegedly harbouring election hackers at a hotel in Osogbo.

Accord State Chairman Victor Akande alleged that individuals brought from Lagos and Abuja had established an operational centre at the GMT Hotel and were preparing to compromise INEC’s electronic systems and insert false results into the commission’s server.

The party called on security agencies to investigate and urged INEC to strengthen its digital safeguards.

The APC rejected the allegation outright.

Osun APC Director of Media and Publicity Kola Olabisi described the claim as “false and baseless”, arguing that the party had no reason to manipulate the election and could win through legitimate votes.

“The allegation that our party is harbouring hackers in a particular hotel in Osogbo is false and without any foundation,” Olabisi said, according to the report.

The competing allegations have added another layer of tension to an already closely watched election.

Neither the Accord Party’s claims nor the APC’s denial, however, by themselves establish that any hacking operation exists.

For the APC, the more immediate challenge appears to be internal.

The decision to bring dozens of influential leaders to the Presidential Villa so close to election day suggests that party unity has become a strategic priority alongside voter mobilisation.

The intervention also carries significance beyond the immediate contest.

Osun is among the final major electoral tests before the 2027 general elections, and the ability of the APC to resolve factional disagreements while maintaining a coherent campaign could offer an important indication of the party’s organisational strength.

For Tinubu, the message delivered to the Osun leaders was ultimately less about settling every individual grievance than preventing those grievances from becoming an electoral liability.

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With the August 15 poll now only days away, the APC’s renewed effort to bring its factions together will be tested not in Abuja, but across Osun’s polling units, where the party hopes that reconciliation at the top will translate into a stronger grassroots campaign for Oyebamiji.