Akoko-Edo HoR 2027: Beyond the Noise of Resignations and Defections

By Elempe Dele

The political storm is not gathering yet. It’s just a dull cloud, while the people of Akoko-Edo are already preparing for the 2027 general elections.

Before and after the May 16, 2026 House of Representatives primary across Akoko-Edo Federal Constituency — where Otunba Oladele Bankole-Balogun won overwhelmingly — the APC made moves to reconcile all contestants. The party appealed to them to work together as one unit ahead of 2027. 

Dr. Adetutu Owolabi respected the party’s decision to field the more experienced politician, Bankole-Balogun. Mr. Paul Afagese, however, was inconsolable. He resigned from the APC and defected to the African Democratic Congress, ADC, to contest the same seat. It is worthy to note that ADC had allegedly conducted its primary and published the name of the winner; Mr. Nelson Ateri. The controversial acquisition raises more questions than answer about integrity and the rule of law. But I do not intend to dwell on it for the now. 

Afagese was within his rights to leave the APC, after the party had exhausted all internal mechanisms to pacify aspirants. What makes recent political conversations “fun” is the loud propaganda around resignations and defections.

Some of these defections are being magnified, just as we saw in the peak days of the Obidient Movement in 2022/2023 before the general elections. We must concede that elections are about numbers. But we must also agree that not every number is significant enough to change outcomes.

Without mentioning names to protect friendships: in 2023 here in Akoko-Edo, we saw a much larger, more youthful followership for another party. Yet, Hon. Peter Akpatason still triumphed as expected.

So let’s not inflate these few defections to look like “swarms of drones from Ukraine entering deep into Russia.” Akoko-Edo is APC, and APC is Akoko-Edo. It will be a Sisyphean task to build any structure capable of contending with the APC’s deep-rooted machinery in Akoko-Edo. A handful of decampees cannot alter the status quo — unless the agenda is simply to cause unnecessary disruption.

Again, Otunba Oladele Bankole-Balogun is running under a broad consensus of competence, capacity, integrity, experience, and purpose. His support across the ten wards that make up the federal constituency is not built on ethnic irredentism. 

What the opposition is doing is to becloud the people with a smoke-like veil of sentiment and tribal clamour, instead of focusing on capacity to deliver grassroots development through conversations on enabling bills, policies, and vision.

It’s all just political banter during this gestation period — propping up the ADC candidate with a few resignations and defections from APC. Electioneering is about the support of the majority, not the noise of the minority. 

The people of Akoko-Edo remain indivisibly with the APC. The party is physically built on solid rock in all the ten wards. To defeat it would be like a camel passing through the eye of a needle. 

But let’s have fun. It is politics. After the election, we will all come back, not with anger, but with the usual friendly hug that we, the Akoko-Edo people, are known for. And we’ll say: “You shouldn’t have left in the first place.”