BY ODUNAYO OGUNMOLA
Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji has built a very good reputation as a decent politician and statesman who obeys the rule of law, promotes peace and respects the sanctity of human life and dignity of human person since he came into public limelight in the struggle that led to the creation of Ekiti State in 1996.
Since his foray into politics in the lead-up to the 1999 governorship election that ushered in his political mentor, Otunba Niyi Adebayo as the first elected Governor of Ekiti State and to date, he has never been known or identified as an individual with propensity for violence.
During the first election that brought him into office in 2022, Oyebanji ran a decent, peaceful and issue-based campaign across the state during which he marketed his experience, pedigree in governance and long years of being a mentee under two former governors (Otunba Adebayo and Dr Kayode Fayemi) as what stood him out as the best candidate and won that year’s governorship election.
During the 2026 governorship electioneering campaign in which he was seeking a re-election, Oyebanji devoted quality time on the soapbox to preach peace across the state restating his readiness and that of his party and supporters to toe the line of peace and cooperate with legitimate moves to deliver a peaceful and violence-free election.
It is on record that Oyebanji notably said that his re-election did not worth the blood of any citizen or resident of Ekiti State. The first place where the Governor made the famous statement was in Emure Ekiti during campaign visits to some local government areas in Ekiti South Senatorial District.
As the 2026 Ekiti governorship poll approached, no All Progressives Congress (APC) rally addressed by Mr Governor was complete without reiterating this statement which he also backed with a stern warning to members and supporters of his political party to eschew violence and not to fall for the bait of opposition parties who may want to provoke them into violence.
Since mounting the number one saddle of governance in the Land of Honour in October 2022, Oyebanji’s actions, utterances, moves, gestures and dispositions have always been towards ensuring that peace reigns across the length and breadth of the state and Ekiti has maintained its position as the most peaceful state in Nigeria which has been validated by ratings done by relevant non-governmental bodies.
Oyebanji’s pacifist gestures has united all former governors, prominent politicians across various divides and eminent citizens of Ekiti who have all thrown their weight behind him because of his humility, respect and peace-promoting initiatives that have permanently banished the toga of “one week, one trouble” from the state.
To ensure that the newfound peace in Ekiti is maintained, Oyebanji chose to accommodate opposition politicians in his administration by appointing them into political positions during his first administration a gesture that was not initially popular in the ruling party but was later accepted as an unprecedented masterstroke to sink political divisions and schisms.
It is against this background that all well-meaning Nigerians must unite and condemn the banal and pedestrian attempts by the African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate, Mr Omoyele Sowore, to falsely accuse Governor Oyebanji and his administration of complicity in the alleged attack on him in Ado Ekiti on Friday, 30th October, 2026.
Oyebanji has proven in words and action that he is a man who abhors violence, thuggery and brigandage having been well brought up by his parents and received a good political tutelage from mentors who are known to be complete gentlemen. Trying to pin the label of violence on such an individual and his government was politics taken too far by Sowore.
Before continuing this piece, I want to join other Nigerians to condemn the alleged attack on Sowore and his team. No individual should be subjected to violence, held against his will or have his movement restricted for any reason in pursuit of his political ambition or legitimate business. Such atrocious behaviour must be condemned in strong terms.
Every Nigerian irrespective of political leaning, religion, ethnicity, language or social status must be allowed freedom of association, movement and opportunity to hold opinions, beliefs, ideology and must be allowed to espouse same within the ambit of the law. These are some of the inalienable rights the law of the land gives all citizens.
Since the circumstances surrounding the alleged attack on Sowore is under investigation, I may not want to comment further on what transpired on Friday. I also expect other Nigerians to allow the law enforcement agencies to carry out their constitutional duties of investigating the incident and possibly bring the perpetrators to justice. We all await the outcome of their investigation.
But it is very unfortunate that Sowore himself rather than assisting security agencies in their investigation has turned himself into a court of law in a desperate bid to blackmail the Oyebanji-led administration. He is desperately trying to foist a “fait accompli” on the police when they have not concluded their investigation.
I know Sowore cannot try that in United States where he holds residency and has a family. I wonder what he will do if he becomes President of Nigeria. It is trite in law that “you cannot be a judge in your own case.” In his latest Ekiti melodrama, Sowore appears to be the complainant, the prosecutor and adjudicator who approbates and reprobates at the same time and that has no place in criminal justice.
Since his Friday misadventure, Sowore has been using his media platform, SaharaReporters, to churn out falsehood, hoodwink Nigerians and turn unsuspecting citizens against the government and the people of Ekiti State. Sowore’s SaharaReporters has been very notorious for fake news, blackmail, distortion and misrepresentation of facts.
There is no prominent Nigerian that Sowore has not used his rabid media dog, SahareReporters, to attack with many of its stories resulting in libel cases in courts. The medium has been used for the hatchet job of falsely attacking anybody who does not share his political philosophy or his own brand of “bolekaja” politics.
SaharaReporters’ sustained attack started during the immediate past administration of former Governor Fayemi and it continued during the first tenure of Oyebanji and all the falsehood were well debunked. This should give Nigerians the benefit of knowledge that Sowore’s latest gambit was part of a regular pattern of smear campaign which he only accelerated in an election season.
A presidential candidate whose penchant for falsehood and blackmail is legendary should not be taken seriously by Nigerians. Anyone who seeks the mandate of Nigerians should be truthful, reliable, sincere and should not have two or three different tongues in his mouth which only serve as instruments of deceit to bamboozle his countrymen.
Concerning the alleged attack, Sowore has presented three different stories of what transpired and Nigerians have been left in a quandary which of the three should be believed. The first allegation that Sowore made was that he had been kidnapped, later he alleged that he was attacked by hoodlums sponsored by the government of Ekiti State and the third one was that he hid himself in an elderly woman’s kitchen.
A man that presented three different versions of an alleged attack carries a huge integrity baggage! Such an individual has rendered himself unfit for the highest office in the land. He can only be fit to be President of the Banana Republic of Falsehood and Blackmail.
Sowore’s resort to deceiving Nigerians with AI-generated picture of a derelict and squalid “Police Cottage Hospital, Ado Ekiti” which was contrary to what really obtains at Police Hospital, Okesa, Ado Ekiti was a gimmick that could have come from a perverse and misguided mind to say the least.
Attempting to paint a decent medical facility and health professionals that treated him bad shows that Sowore does not discriminate in tarring anybody, including those who helped him in his hour of need, with the brush of falsehood and blackmail. That was not the best way to reciprocate a humanitarian gesture.
Let Sowore be told that falsehood and blackmail have their limits. Nigerians cannot fall for the deceit of a presidential candidate with character deficit. What they want to hear from Sowore is what he can do better than the present occupant of the office if entrusted with the sacred mandate of the electorate across Nigeria.
The presidency (and any other elected public office for that matter) is meant for serious-minded and visionary individuals and not content creators, skit makers, traffic generators, attention seekers and scaremongers like Sowore. Electioneering is not skit making, the earlier Sowore knows this the better for him.
Accusing Oyebanji and his administration of complicity in Sowore’s alleged attack is a mission that is dead on arrival. It is very illogical, ludicrous and preposterous for Sowore to claim that the Oyebanji administration has a hand in the alleged attack when he (Oyebanji) never attacked his opponents and their supporters in the last governorship election.
Yes, there was no single report or record of violence anywhere in Ekiti State before, during and after the last governorship election in which Oyebanji was a candidate for re-election. What will he gain by approving an attack in an election in which he is not on the ballot. The Governor may campaign for the re-election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu but evidence, reasoning and logic point to the fact that he does not need to resort to violence to win the state for Mr President.
Sowore has chosen a wrong state to stage his insipid drama and targeting the Governor for skit making won’t fly because Ekiti people know that they have an Omoluabi and a God-fearing man as their leader. Sowore should not accuse the office and person of Governor Oyebanji of complicity in Friday’s alleged attack without any credible evidence. Oyebanji is too decent, refined and polished to be dragged into Sowore’s dogfight.