Recruiting Sunday Igboho, Others Against Aregbesola Is Dangerous, ADC Cautions Tinubu’s Men

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has cautioned loyalists of President Bola Tinubu against what it described as a desperate and dangerous campaign to intimidate the former Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.

The party, in a statement issued on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, condemned the attempt to cast Aregbesola as a traitor to the Yoruba people, warning that such tactics were undemocratic and inimical to the long-term political interests of the South-West.

Aregbesola, who recently left the All Progressives Congress (APC) to join the ADC as National Secretary, has come under sustained attacks from political opponents. Matters took a dramatic turn on 14 August when suspected thugs disrupted an ADC rally in Sagamu, Ogun State, where he was scheduled to campaign for the party’s candidate in a forthcoming bye-election, Solomon Osho. His loyalists have since alleged plots to eliminate him.

The ADC spokesman drew parallels with history, recalling how Tinubu openly opposed former President Olusegun Obasanjo without being branded a traitor to the Yoruba cause. “No one accused Asiwaju of treachery when he challenged Obasanjo’s Federal Government or when he antagonised Afenifere,” Abdullahi noted. “Why then should Aregbesola be demonised today for choosing a different political path?”

He further alleged that fear of Aregbesola’s political influence was behind the sustained hostility.

“The impression one gets is that Tinubu’s people are so afraid of Aregbesola that they are throwing everything at him, even recruiting Sunday Igboho, a self-declared ethnic warlord, into the fight. But the narrative they are pushing is that tribal loyalty is more important than the national interest. This is wrong and dangerous,” he said.

According to Abdullahi, demonising Aregbesola and other Yoruba leaders in the opposition is not only disgraceful but also an assault on democratic freedoms.

He stressed that President Tinubu, despite being a Yoruba man, does not embody the entire South-West.

“Aregbesola is more than capable of fighting his own political battles. But as a party, we strongly condemn this campaign of intimidation and intolerance. It must stop immediately,” he said.