The National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ajibola Basiru, has claimed that rejected ballot papers recorded more votes than Omoyele Sowore’s party, the African Action Congress (AAC), in the 2023 presidential election
Basiru made the remarks while dismissing Sowore’s political relevance, describing the activist and presidential candidate as a “skit maker” and “comedian”
Speaking during an interview on ’s Politics Today on Wednesday night, the APC scribe argued that Sowore should first demonstrate electoral strength at the state level before seeking national office
“Sowore is a skit maker You know he’s my friend. All of us were in the trenches as student union leaders. He’s a skit maker. He knows that wouldn’t happen,” Basiru said.
“Let him struggle to even get a seat in the House of Assembly as a politician, and then people will begin to take him seriously Even rejected ballot papers had more votes than his party in the 2023 election. So that means that a rejected ballot paper is more popular than his party, so he’s just making skits.”
He added: “He is not even a top contender When I see him, I will tell him that he’s just a comedian. He’s not serious about the presidential race.”
Our correspondent reports that the clash followed a controversial request by the AAC to hold the inauguration of its Presidential Campaign Council at the Presidential Villa in Abuja
In a letter dated October 21, 2026, addressed to the President and signed by AAC National Secretary Oshiokhai Ikpeminioghena, the party requested access to the Villa along with state-funded logistics, including food and drinks, for the event proposed for November 11, 2026
Reacting to Basiru’s comments in a post on his X handle on Wednesday night, Sowore recalled their shared background in student activism during the 1990s opposing military dictatorship, posting a 1998 photograph of them together
Sowore rejected the APC scribe’s assessment of his political career and defended his ongoing activism
“The struggle for justice, democracy, freedom, and the preservation of human dignity is neither skit-making nor comedy,” Sowore stated
He accused Basiru of abandoning the principles they once fought for due to the benefits of his current office
“His premise is that because Bola Ahmed Tinubu was declared ‘winner’ by INEC in the deeply flawed 2023 presidential election, those of us who contested against him should somehow be ashamed of losing,” Sowore said “It is unfortunate that he has become so carried away by the fleeting privileges of his current political position that he now ridicules the very struggle that helped shape his own future.”
Sowore also revealed that he assisted Basiru in gaining admission to study law at the University of Lagos following Basiru’s rustication over student union activities at the University of Ilorin in 1992
Warning that power is temporary, Sowore added: “Political appointments are temporary Tinubu’s regime will come and go, just like the military regimes we confronted in our youth. The struggle for freedom is not comedy. What is truly comical is watching yesterday’s beneficiaries of resistance become today’s defenders of the very oppression they once fought against.”