OYO UNFILTERED: Open Letter To Oko Ati Iyawo — Hannah Ogunesan And Col. Gbenga Adegbola, Sheathe Your Swords Before Oke-Ogun Loses The War

By Habeeb Opeyemi Daranijo

Dear Chief Mrs. Hannah Ogunesan and Col. Gbenga Adegbola (Rtd.),

We address you both as oko ati iyawo of Saki — not by blood alone, but by the unbreakable Yoruba logic of belonging. Hannah, daughter of Ago-Amodu in Saki East, became a Saki woman the day she was married into the Ogunesan family; every child she raised was born and bred on Saki soil. Gbenga, a son of Saki by birth, remains — by that same native logic — a husband of the town his in-law now claims as her own political base. Neither of you is a stranger here. As the elders say, “Ile la ti n ko eso r’ode” — charity, and repair, begin at home. That is precisely why this fight, if allowed to fester, will not just wound two political camps — it will wound Saki, and by extension, the whole of Oke-Ogun.

What Actually Happened

The APC Oyo North senatorial primary was never a two-horse race on paper — three names cleared screening: Prof. Adeolu Akande, Col. Gbenga Adegbola, and Chief Mrs. Hannah Ogunesan. All three were cleared to participate in the senatorial primaries for Oyo North Senatorial District. When the dust settled, the party declared Ogunesan winner, and she has since received her INEC nomination form as the APC’s Oyo North senatorial candidate — one of only three senatorial flagbearers presented for the entire state.

Adegbola’s camp has not accepted that outcome quietly. A group calling itself the New Age Transformative Leadership for Good Governance has alleged that Col. Adegbola was the authentic winner of the primary but was unlawfully replaced by Ogunesan on the party’s final list, describing it as “political self-sabotage” that could hand the seat to the opposition. A party chieftain separately claimed at an Abuja press conference that Adegbola won nine of the district’s thirteen local government areas but was not declared winner, and further alleged that Ogunesan — who once served as Head of service to the Oyo State Government — had an unresolved matter with the EFCC over public funds returned to the treasury. We flag that last claim for what it is: an allegation from a rival camp, not a proven fact, and Ogunesan’s team has not publicly responded to it. Oke-Ogun politics has a bad habit of turning contested numbers into ethnic and marital slurs against a woman simply because she married in. That habit must stop here. “Ajoji Ọwọ́ kan o gberu dori” — one hand cannot lift a full calabash; this district only wins carrying its wounds together.

To Col. Gbenga Adegbola: Patience Built Empires, Bitterness Has Never Built One

Soldier, you know discipline. Apply it now. As the Yoruba say, “Bí a bá n gun igi, kí a beru ati si ese gbe” — one who climbs a tree does so one careful step at a time, not by leaping. Politics rewards those who lose today and out-position everyone tomorrow — ask Prof. Adeolu Akande, who was cleared alongside you for this same ticket but lost out to Ogunesan and has raised no public grievance against the party since. Ask Sen. Fatai Buhari, the man who has held this Oyo North seat for three terms and would clock twelve years in the Senate by 2027 before stepping aside to contest the governorship instead, leaving the senatorial ticket open to the three Oke-Ogun aspirants. Buhari lost that governorship race too — the ticket went to Barrister Sharafadeen Alli — and has not fired a single public shot at the party. That is party supremacy: “Ere lo ni suru nje” — he who follows the path arrives — the discipline to lose a battle without declaring war on your own house.

You reportedly went for the governorship ticket before this senatorial race and lost that too if that history is accurate, it is not a mark of shame, it is a negotiating card. A two-time aspirant with a military man’s discipline and a demonstrated followership across Oke-Ogun is exactly the profile parties reward with appointments a ministerial slot, a board chairmanship, an ambassadorial posting but only if you align, not if you burn bridges. And watch the company you keep: “Ẹní tí a bá jọ jẹun o gbodo fi ọwọ́ wun bo ni l’ójú” one does not stab with the right hand the person one just shared a meal with, yet that is exactly what fair-weather friends do. The politicians now organising press conferences on your behalf were, in an earlier season, foot soldiers standing behind Ogunesan and the Ajimobi political structure. Loyalty in that circle has historically followed the honey, not the man. If the pendulum swings back tomorrow, do not be surprised if the same voices regroup elsewhere and leave you holding a grudge that cost you a ministerial slot.

To Hannah Ogunesan: A Winner’s First Duty Is To Heal, Not To Gloat

Victory in a primary this contested is not the finish line it is the start of the real work. “Ìṣẹ́gun kì í parí ogun” victory does not end the war; it only opens the next chapter, and how you handle the defeated will decide whether Oke-Ogun marches with you or against you in 2027. In 2023, Bola Tinubu is widely recalled to have counselled a similarly bruised Teslim Folarin in the Oyo Central race to go round with both torchlight and lantern, house to house, to beg and reconcile the aggrieved. Whether or not that exact phrase was uttered word for word, the wisdom behind it is undisputed in Oke-Ogun politics: “Àgbájọ ọwọ́ la fi ń sọ́yà” — it takes united hands to beat the chest in triumph a candidate who cannot pacify her own house cannot credibly ask the wider electorate to trust her with theirs.

Your real fight is no longer inside the APC it is against a united Oke-Ogun opposition now consolidating around Hon. Shina Peller, who has resigned from the PDP to join the Allied Peoples Movement, running his 2027 senatorial bid on a manifesto anchored on youth advancement, digital economy reforms, grassroots inclusion and economic empowerment. Peller is no pushover: he previously served as federal lawmaker for Iseyin/Itesiwaju/Kajola/Iwajowa and built a formidable grassroots and youth network, and even after losing his 2023 senatorial bid, has spent the years since deepening his ties at home rather than disappearing from the constituency. That is the opponent that should be uniting APC’s Oke-Ogun bloc, not internal recrimination. Reach out to Adegbola’s people. Reach out to Akande’s people. Begin the reconciliation now, before the wounds calcify into 2027 defections.

The Bigger Picture: Oke-Ogun Cannot Afford To Lose Twice

Oke-Ogun holds ten of the thirteen local government areas in Oyo North and roughly 24 per cent of Oyo State’s registered voters, yet the zone has watched Ogbomoso hold the senatorial seat for three unbroken terms. Zone 2, anchored by Saki, is already at risk of being squeezed out twice over once by the APM’s Peller-led opposition consolidating Oke-Ogun sentiment, and again by internal APC disarray if Adegbola’s supporters sit out 2027 in protest. Every appointment slot the zone can still negotiate ministerial, board, or agency should be the shared target of both camps, not a prize hoarded by whichever side shouts loudest. Col. Gbenga Adegbola, disciplined, tested, and twice a contestant, is a legitimate name for that conversation but only a united Oke-Ogun can put it on the table. “Agbajowọ́ ni a fi ń je Ọba”  it takes many hands to install a king; it will take many reconciled hands to keep Oke-Ogun relevant.

Oko ati iyawo, the house is still standing. “Bí ilé bá dáná sun’ni, ilé kan náà ni a ó tún kọ́” if a house burns us, it is the same house we must rebuild. Do not be the generation remembered for setting fire to a home the family next door is only waiting to inherit.