{"id":199545,"date":"2026-04-26T19:16:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T18:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/amosun-denies-asking-aspirants-to-withdraw-from-race"},"modified":"2026-04-26T20:25:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T19:25:36","slug":"amosun-denies-asking-aspirants-to-withdraw-from-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/amosun-denies-asking-aspirants-to-withdraw-from-race","title":{"rendered":"Amosun Denies Asking Aspirants to Withdraw from Race"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Former Ogun State governor and two-term senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Ibikunle Amosun, has insisted that he never<\/p>\n<p>asked or pressured aspirants to withdraw from the 2027 senatorial race.<\/p>\n<p>Recall that a stakeholders\u2019 meeting of the Ogun Central Senatorial District was held in Abeokuta on Thursday, to deliberate on the possibility of adopting a consensus candidate.<\/p>\n<p>According to reports from the meeting, Amosun had reportedly listed three aspirants as having agreed to step down for him.<\/p>\n<p>This, however, led to a backlash and the aspirants denying having any conversation or agreeing to step down for the former governor.<\/p>\n<p>Reacting to the incident on Sunday, Amosun in a statement by his media office described such claims as \u201cmisrepresentation\u201d of proceedings at a the meeting.<\/p>\n<p>According to the statement titled, \u201cOgun Central APC Meeting: Setting the Record Straight \u2013 Amosun\u201d, the former governor stated that it will be undemocratic and unacceptable for him to request anyone to withdraw from the race.<\/p>\n<p>The statement reads, \u201cMy attention has been drawn to media reports about a meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogun Central Senatorial District held last Thursday, April 23, 2026, at the residence of Chief Olusegun Osoba on the nomination of candidates for the 2027 general election.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany of the accounts of the meeting were complete misrepresentation of the proceedings. The meeting was convened at my instance, when there were insinuations about my candidature for the election.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the meeting, I recalled that three senatorial aspirants from the district had visited me to seek my support for their candidacy and that each of them volunteered that if I am interested in contesting for the office, they would withdraw their candidacy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNowhere throughout the meeting did I request anyone to withdraw from the race for me because that would be undemocratic and unacceptable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wish to reiterate that I am not only a democrat, I have contested and won election twice to the office of Governor of Ogun State and twice as a Senator of the Federal Republic. What I said at the meeting, which I reiterate is that I would not be part of a primary election whose result is predetermined.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI advise the media to report proceedings of meetings correctly by cross-checking accounts given by interested parties\u201d the statement concluded.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Former Ogun State governor and two-term senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Ibikunle Amosun, has insisted that he never asked or pressured aspirants to withdraw from the 2027 senatorial race. Recall that a stakeholders\u2019 meeting of the Ogun Central Senatorial District was held in Abeokuta on Thursday, to deliberate on the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":199544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-199545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Amosun Denies Asking Aspirants to Withdraw from Race - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Ogun State governor and two-term senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Ibikunle Amosun, has insisted that h ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/amosun-denies-asking-aspirants-to-withdraw-from-race\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Amosun Denies Asking Aspirants to Withdraw from Race\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Ogun State governor and two-term senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Ibikunle Amosun, has insisted that h ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/amosun-denies-asking-aspirants-to-withdraw-from-race\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-26T18:16:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-26T19:25:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/04\/sm_1777231406.072055.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"692\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/amosun-denies-asking-aspirants-to-withdraw-from-race#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/amosun-denies-asking-aspirants-to-withdraw-from-race\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Amosun Denies Asking Aspirants to Withdraw from Race\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-26T18:16:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-26T19:25:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/amosun-denies-asking-aspirants-to-withdraw-from-race\"},\"wordCount\":398,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/amosun-denies-asking-aspirants-to-withdraw-from-race#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/04\/sm_1777231406.072055.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/amosun-denies-asking-aspirants-to-withdraw-from-race#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/amosun-denies-asking-aspirants-to-withdraw-from-race\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/amosun-denies-asking-aspirants-to-withdraw-from-race\",\"name\":\"Amosun Denies Asking Aspirants to Withdraw from Race - 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