Former Ogun Central senator, Iyabo Obasanjo, has resigned her membership of the All Progressives Congress (APC), citing what she described as repeated disrespect, rejection and poor treatment by the party in Ogun State.
In a resignation letter dated May 31 and addressed to the state APC chairman, Yemi Sanusi, Obasanjo said recent developments within the party convinced her that she was no longer welcome.
Her departure comes less than six months after she joined the APC and shortly after the party selected Solomon Adeola, popularly known as Yayi, as its governorship candidate for the 2027 election.
The former senator said she entered the race with a commitment to respect the party’s decision if a consensus candidate emerged. However, she argued that the process that produced Adeola failed to meet the party’s own guidelines.
“When I started the journey to get the party’s nomination for Governor, I came to see you and I said to you and everyone both privately and publicly that I will honor the party’s consensus decision once it has been made,” she stated.
Obasanjo claimed that some of her supporters were denied access to the venue where the candidate was announced.
“When that day came, even as violence was perpetrated against my supporters to stop them from entering the venue, I maintained my calmness,” she said.
She further criticised the process, saying she was not consulted before the announcement was made.
“At the venue, with no prior meeting with me as a candidate, given what the national party says in its guidelines on what consensus should be, a candidate was announced.
“No one acknowledged my presence at the meeting given that I was the most prominent opposition to the candidate chosen and I had traversed the state mobilizing and encouraging grassroots APC support,” she added.
Despite her concerns, Obasanjo said she accepted the outcome and publicly congratulated the candidate in the interest of party unity.
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“Based on my conviction that party unity is important, I wrote my letter accepting the party’s consensus candidate that night even with the flawed process,” she said.
According to her, Adeola later met with her supporters and promised to respond to three requests they presented.
“At that meeting my people made three requests which I said were not compulsory, but he should let me know so I would inform my people of his responses, and he said I should give him a week,” she stated.
She said no response had been received more than two months later.
“Unless he gets back to me after I send this letter, he has not reached out to me after two months.
“This is just part of the general treatment I have received from APC of disrespect and rejection as if I was not there making contributions that increased support for the party in Ogun Central and across the state,” she said.
Explaining her decision to leave, Obasanjo wrote: “A famous person once said that when disrespect is the only dish served, then one should leave the table. I am therefore leaving the APC table where I am not welcomed. This is my resignation from the party.”
She nevertheless thanked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and some party leaders for the cordial relationship she enjoyed during her brief stay in the ruling party.
“Through you, I want to thank the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for receiving me warmly as usual, and I thank you and our Ogun Central Senatorial Chairman, Chief Soremi, as both of you treated me well and I will always remember that,” she wrote.
Obasanjo joined the APC in January 2026 after registering in Ward 11, Ibogun, in Ifo Local Government Area, marking her return to frontline partisan politics after years away from the political scene.