We Defeated Ourselves” — Farouk Aliyu Reveals Why APC Lost To Adeleke In Osun

Speaking on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Monday, Aliyu said disagreements among APC members affected the party’s campaign and ultimately contributed to its loss.

According to him, some party members were unhappy with the choice of the APC candidate and, as a result, failed to give the campaign the level of support expected of them.

Aliyu acknowledged that the party made significant efforts to secure victory but said internal conflicts weakened its chances at the polls.

“We did our best. I mean, we did what we thought could make us win the election, but of course, here and there, at the back end, we’re discussing to see the details of really what has happened,” he said.

He added that the party did everything within its capacity to win the election, while commending the Federal Government for its role in the process.

According to Aliyu, however, the people of Osun ultimately made their choice by voting for the Accord Party.

“We did everything, everything possible, humanly possible, to win the election, and kudos also to our government. I mean, the federal government in such a way that all the political pundits who thought that APC was going to just take it, and APC was just going to write the results and so on, things happened the way they did, and Osun people decided they wanted Accord party, and so be it,” he stated.

The APC chieftain admitted that the party had experienced significant internal disagreements, particularly over its choice of candidate for the election.

“You know there’s a lot of internal wranglings amongst our members. You know, in Osun State, there are people who were not happy with our candidate, which is true. Some people were happy with the candidate,” Aliyu said.

He suggested that the APC may need to reconsider its approach to selecting candidates in future elections, arguing that preference should be given to aspirants with the strongest support base within the party.

“So, in terms of choice of candidate, probably that’s what we have to look at to make sure that probably the person who has the largest followership amongst the party members is put up for election,” he said.

Aliyu further revealed that some APC members deliberately withheld their support because they were unhappy with the party’s candidate.

“Certainly some members of our party did not do what they are supposed to do because out of anger, really they didn’t like their candidate,” he stated.

He concluded that the major challenge responsible for the party’s poor showing in Osun was an internal problem.

“So that’s the major problem internally that we had. It’s amongst us,” Aliyu said.