Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has expressed confidence that the Allied People’s Movement, APM, will secure major victories in the 2027 general elections following the defection of thousands of APC members to the party.

Makinde spoke on Monday at the Boye Nation/JAF Movement Mega Concert held at the Lekan Salami Sports Complex in Ibadan, where he formally received the defectors.

The new APM members, led by Ajiboye Sangogade, popularly known as Boye Nation, were drawn from several local government areas across the state. Sangogade is a personal assistant and loyalist of former Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu.

Speaking at the event, Makinde said the defections reflected growing support for the APM and predicted victory for the party across the state in 2027.

He also challenged the APC governorship candidate, Sharafadeen Alli, to focus on the APM candidate, Bimbo Adekanmbi, instead of criticising his administration.

Makinde renewed his criticism of Alli’s legal career, questioning his professional achievements and contrasting them with his own engineering credentials and those of Adekanmbi in accounting.

The governor also defended the use of diesel-powered generators for streetlights in the state, blaming the continued electricity challenges on the failure to resolve the country’s power problems.

Makinde referenced President Bola Tinubu’s past campaign promise on electricity, arguing that reliable power supply would have eliminated the need to use diesel generators for street lighting.