There can be no Consensus When the Game has not started, Let Due Process Prevail in Ondo North Senate Race

Owo, Ondo State 

Our attention has been drawn to circulating claims of a so-called “consensus candidate” for the Ondo North Senatorial District ahead of the 2027 general elections. 

We state, unequivocally and in line with the law: There can be no consensus when the game has not started.

The Electoral Act 2022, Section 84(9), is clear and unambiguous. A political party can only adopt a consensus candidate where all aspirants to the position have given written consent to step down for one of them. The operative word is aspirants.

You cannot have the consent of an aspirant who does not yet exist.  

You cannot negotiate withdrawal with a contender who has not entered the race.  

You cannot obtain the signature of a man who has not picked the Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms.

As of today, the party has not commenced the sale of nomination forms. No aspirant has been screened. No field of play has been defined. To therefore declare consensus at this stage is to put the cart before the horse. It is premature, legally hollow, and contrary to the spirit of internal democracy.

Consensus, under our laws, is the end of a process — not the beginning. It presupposes that all interested parties have emerged, been screened, and mutually agreed in writing to yield to one of their own. Anything short of that is not consensus. It is imposition. And imposition breeds division, litigation, and electoral defeat.

The good people of Owo, Ose, and indeed the entire Ondo North, deserve a process that is fair, transparent, and inclusive. We must not shut the stadium gates before the players have arrived.

We therefore call on party leaders, elders, and stakeholders to allow due process to take its full course. Let the forms be purchased. Let the aspirants emerge. Let consultations happen among equals. Only then can the question of consensus legally and morally arise.

Our democracy is too precious to be sacrificed on the altar of haste. Let us do it right, so that Ondo APC can win right.

Signed:  

Concerned APC Stakholders

April 28, 2026