RETURN OF LADI ADEBUTU TO THE BALLOT AND THE DESPERATION OF THE YAYI CAMP

By Alagbawi Eda

 For weeks, the political atmosphere in Ogun State was thick with suspense, rumour and quiet scheming. The name missing from the ballot was louder than all the names on it.

On October 10, 2026, when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) published its final list of 13 governorship candidates for the February 6, 2027 election, the column for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was blank. Oladipupo "Ladi" Adebutu, the man who polled 262,383 votes in 2023 and had toured 12 local governments in preparation for a rematch, was nowhere to be found.

His running mate, Alhaja Lateefat Sowunmi-Kolapo, was also missing.

In the camp of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, popularly known as Yayi, there was celebration. The road to Oke-Mosan suddenly looked like a solo run. No real opponent. No real contest. Just a coronation walk.

But that celebration was premature.

On Friday, November 13, 2026, Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, shattered the illusion.

In a judgment that resolved all four issues in favour of Adebutu, the court ordered INEC to restore and publish his name within 24 hours. The judge held that INEC had no power to unilaterally remove a candidate sponsored by a political party without a court order. He described INEC's delay in raising the membership register issue, months after it had monitored the PDP primary and published Adebutu's name on the provisional list, as an "absurdity."

Adebutu, the court held, was not a party to the Supreme Court case INEC relied upon and could not be bound by it.

Just like that, Ladi was back on the ballot.

THE DESPERATIO

If the Yayi camp had been confident, it did not show it in the weeks Adebutu was off the ballot. Instead, political watchers in Abeokuta say, what played out was desperation dressed as confidence.

First came the projects. Fifty-three projects in quick succession. Roads, primary healthcare centres, markets, schools, a state-of-the-art Area Command Police Station and power facilities in Imeko-Afon. Ribbon-cutting after ribbon-cutting, as if concrete could replace contest.

Then came the nine-point agenda, tagged "ITESIWAJU", and the boast of two million votes. A candidate sure of victory does not need to announce the figure before a single ballot is cast.

Then came the whispers that have refused to die in Ogun politics: that over N10 billion was sunk into engineering Adebutu's omission, to secure a cheap victory and avoid the heavy cost of a real election. The Yayi camp has denied it. The APC Campaign Council has insisted that Yayi is not responsible for the PDP's internal administrative problems. But in politics, as in life, denial is not always the same as innocence.

What is not in dispute is this: while Adebutu was fighting in court, the Yayi camp was fighting in the media, in the markets, and in the churches and mosques — praying, mobilising, donating campaign offices, urging women to deliver "one woman, ten votes." A camp that already believed it had won would not need to mobilise that hard.

Even some APC members themselves began to grumble. Some threatened to withhold their votes from Yayi if Adebutu stayed off the ballot, arguing that a contest without the PDP denies grassroots members the economic benefits of a competitive campaign and denies democracy its meaning. They accused Yayi of "running away from contest."

That is the irony of desperation: in trying to avoid a fight, you reveal how much you fear the fight.

WHY ADEBUTU SCARES THEM

Adebutu is not a stranger to Ogun politics. He is the Iperu-born politician who stayed in the PDP when others defected. He is the man his supporters call loyal, resilient, and rooted. He is the man former Ijebu East Chairman, Wale Adedayo, predicted would cause "an earthquake" in 2027.

The Yayi camp knows this. It knows that Adebutu's return changes everything. It turns a solo run into a real race. It forces Yayi to answer hard questions about his roots, about his years representing Lagos West before crossing to Ogun West, about his projects and his purse, and about whether a man can buy his way to Oke-Mosan.

It also forces the APC to confront its own internal cracks: the chieftains circling, the purse said to be running dry, the EFCC scrutiny whispered about in Abuja, and the growing feeling among Ogun people that the ruling party has lost touch.

Adebutu, on his part, never stopped campaigning. Even while off the ballot, he told his supporters: "We have no fear at all. It has not slowed us down. We will not be distracted."

He kept his eyes on the ball while his opponents kept their eyes on INEC's list.

A NEW RACE BEGINS

Now, the ballot is complete again. The court has spoken. INEC has been ordered to do its duty within 24 hours.

For the PDP, it is vindication. For Adebutu, it is resurrection. For the Yayi camp, it is a rude awakening.

The 2027 election will no longer be decided in courtrooms, in INEC offices, or by omission. It will be decided where it should have been decided all along: by the people of Ogun State, in the 20 local governments and 236 wards.

And that, perhaps, is what the Yayi camp feared most: a fair fight.

Because when Ladi Adebutu is on the ballot, Yayi cannot just lay asphalt. He must lay out his plans, defend his record, and convince a sophisticated electorate that he, and not Adebutu, deserves to govern Ogun State.

The return has happened. The desperation is now exposed. The real campaign has just begun.

By Alagbawi Eda Writes From Abeokuta