The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) won the Ondo South Senatorial by-election that took place last weekend, but the party is said to be worried about its performance in the poll. The party national leaders were said to be reviewing the outcome as part of preparations for the 2027 general election.

An official stance has not yet been released, but a source with impeccable credentials called the outcomes “good and unimpressive.”
By-elections were held in six states by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The APC won five of the contests while Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) retained the Rivers South East Senatorial seat with its candidate Olaka Nwogu.

In Ondo South, former President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Prof. Dayo Faduyile, emerged winner in the election with 68,474 votes, defeating the Allied People’s Movement (APM) candidate, Adeolu Akinwumi, who polled 1,411 votes.

An APC member of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) confided in our correspondent that the by-elections, the recent Ekiti governorship election and the forthcoming 15 August Osun governorship poll, were being seen by the APC as a pointer to the readiness of the party for the 2027 elections, especially in the South-West, where President Bola Ahmed Tinubu hails from.

“The party leadership has started a thorough review of the elections to find out what we did well and where we need to do better. We are still working on that, but you know the by-elections were held in many states. “Right now we only know that we had a good result in Enugu but unimpressive in Ondo even though we won,” he said.

The Ondo South outcome, he said, drew special notice due to the low voter turnout, even though the district is the senatorial zone of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa and the APC had no strong opposition. All parties combined cast no less than 70,000 votes, compared with the 2023 senatorial election where the APC candidate, Jimoh Ibrahim, polled 110,665 votes while the PDP’s Agboola Ajayi polled 65,784 votes.

Comparing the Ondo South figures with the recent Enugu North Senatorial by-election where APC polled 162,360 votes against 9,299 votes by PDP, he said, “Even though APC lost the Enugu North seat in 2023, the turnout of voters in the recent by-election was not far from what was recorded in the previous general election.

“The party’s target is to outstrip its 2023 presidential vote, especially in the South-West. In 2023, Ondo gave the highest percentage of votes to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the region. The turnout in the by-election has raised concerns about whether the party can improve on the 369,924 votes Tinubu polled in the state during the presidential election.

“Honestly, we have more work to do in Ondo South because it was disturbing to us to see that level of turnout in the governor’s enclave.

It is worrying that in the governor’s electoral ward, with over 11,000 registered voters, our party got less than 700 votes, coming eighth in the 12 wards.

“The APC polled less than 12,000 votes across the entire local government area, which has about 147,000 registered voters,” the source added.

Another APC chieftain in Ondo, who also pleaded anonymity, said the by-election revealed cracks within the party. He accused Governor Aiyedatiwa of not doing enough to bring party stakeholders together, alleging that comments by some of the governor’s loyalists about “retiring” some party leaders had alienated influential members.

He also cited the violence that marred the party’s congresses in Akure and said some victims had yet to recover.

The party stalwart warned that the APC must unite ahead of 2027, especially now that the former Senator Nicholas Tofowomo is the Ondo South senatorial candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).