…Murphy ŕemains APC’s candidate, party chair, Abass insists
As the bye- elections in the Ibadan north Federal Constituency draws nearer, the Obye-electionsment has called Northeople to fulfil their civic responsibility by coming out en-masses to vote for the fulfilment of their choice.
This is as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) released the final list of candidates for the Ibadan North Federal Constituency bye-election scheduled to hold on Saturday, August 16, 2025.
Those cleared are 42-year-old Oyekunle Fola Sunday of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), while the oldest is 78-year-old Hammed Badmus of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
Others cleared by INEC to contest the bye-election include Akin Alamu Dexter Femi of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Olatunji Haastrup Adewale of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and Odususi Olajumoke Olabisi of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
It will be recalled that the member representing Ibadan North Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives, Olaide Akinremi of APC, died on July 10, 2024, which necessitated the conduct of a bye-election.
His death created a vacant seat in the House of Representatives, prompting INEC to fix a date for a bye-election to fill the vacant seat.
However, a statement jointly issued by the Director General of Oyo state Mobilization Agency for Socio-Economic Development,(OYMASED), Morohun State Mobilisation Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Inclusion, Toyin Balogun noted that the bye election will take place on the 16th August, 2025.
The statement added that, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission, 19 registered political parties are eligible to participate in the bye-election.
The statement also noted that Ibadan North Federal Constituency, which comprises 12 wards with 512 polling units, has 272,196 registered voters.
While calling on Women from the Federal Constituency to come out en-masse to vote, the DG OYMASED and Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Mobilisation stated that women are known to be Agents of Change and critical Influencers who can easily influence their children as well as husbands to vote.
Because our votes determine the quality of leadership at the helm of affairs who will formulate policies with direct impact on the lives and futures of our children, it thus behoves any responsible parent, especially the mothers to be interested in using their votes and by extension, their voices to elect leaders who will steer the ship of state in directions which will enable their children reach and manifest their fullest potentials
The duo then encouraged the women to ensure that to go to the polling units with all their children who are ages 18 and above,including their friends and neighbours to exercise their franchise by voting for the candidate of their choice.
A Get-Out-The-Vote Vote Advocacy Campaign targeted at the female demographic. Phic of the Federal Constituency is expected to take place before the Bye-Elections.
Meanwhile, Olayide Abass, the chairman of the All Progressives Congress in Oyo State weekend the party’s candidate in the August 16 bye-election in Ibadan North, federal constituency remains Adewale Olatunji Murphy.
Last Wednesday, six aspirants in the party wrote to the national chair that they had settled for Khalil Mustapha as their consensus candidate.
But in a statement made available to the journalists in Ibadan on Friday, the party chairman insisted that Murphy remains the candidate saying “My attention has been drawn to a report being circulated in some section of the media about the purported emergence of another consensus candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the August 16, 2025 bye-election in Ibadan North Federal Constituency and I wish to state categorically that the public should disregard it. The truth of the matter is that Mr. ADEWALE OLATUNJI (a.k.a Murphy) remains the candidate of our great Party.
“All we did at the meeting, which took place on Wednesday at the State Secretariat of our Party, was to appeal for understanding and cooperation of the aggrieved aspirants who were the conveners of the meeting. Also, it must be clearly stated here that the Party Leaders who attended the meeting on the invitation of the Aspirants lacked the power to substitute the Party Candidate’s name, and none of them, including myself, made any allusion to such a claim.
The National Secretariat of our great Party has submitted Adewale Olatunji’s name as our candidate, and what we are concerned about now is how to bring everyone (including his co-contestants on board to work together as members of the same progressive family to win the seat which originally belonged to us.
“However, I am using this medium to make a strong appeal to all the aspirants, their supporters and other stakeholders who still nurse one grievance or the other on account of the unavoidable controversies which surrounded the Consensus arrangement which produced Olatunji as our candidate to exercise patience and give room for dialogue as I can assure all and sundry that the leadership of the Party would do the needful to assuage their individual and collective feelings.
“August 16 is here and we must deliver together as the bye-election means so much to us. May God grant us a resounding victory at this poll as well as those coming in the future.”
