Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu has said political gladiators in Oyo All Progressives Congress (APC) must be willing to shift ground to ensure the party’s victory in the 2027 election.

He stressed on genuine reconciliation with aggrieved members of the party, urging the State Executive Committee ( EXCO) of the party to take the issue with seriousness.

Adelabu said reconciliation is about sacrifice adding that nothing could be too much for members to sacrifice for victory.

“We must be ready to make some compromise and shift grounds to achieve the main goal of reclaiming back the state from the current PDP led government,” he said.

The Minister, who is APC leading governorship aspirant in the 2027 governorship election, spoke at the weekend while hosting the state EXCO and chairmen of the party across the 33 local government areas.

Also, state party Chairman, AlhajiOlaide Abass, assured that the party is  resolving its differences as part of measures to take over the governance of the state in 2027.

On reconciliation, the minister explained that every stakeholder must be willing to do what it takes to ensure that unity and oneness return to the party.

He added: “Reconciliation is about sacrifice. It’s mutual sacrifice. Everybody is going to put down something for us to reconcile. There is no reconciliation without sacrifice. No reconciliation without compromise. There is no reconciliation without cooperation, collaboration and partnership.

“What matters most is the party’s success at the next election. And nothing is too much for anybody to sacrifice. And everybody knows that there will always be terms and conditions that will be beneficial to all the members of the party.”

Giving the highpoint of the meeting, Chief Adelabu said Oyo APC will soon make a public declaration on the support for the second term bid of President Bola Tinubu.

He noted that the decision would be taken at an enlarged stakeholders meeting of the party members across the state, adding that the leadership have been meeting, reviewing and assessing the various programmes of the President across various sectors since his assumption of office.

Adelabu said: “We have met today to review the situation and status of the party. It is my personal meeting with the extended excos of the party, which is made up of the State Executive Committee and all the chairmen of all the 33 local governments. I invited them for this meeting and they did. I am very grateful for that. We discussed the progress of the party generally.”

“We discussed the activities and success recorded at the federal level by the captain of the ship, by our leader, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in making sure that Nigeria is brought to an era of prosperity, an era of peace, an era of harmony, an era of economic growth and industrial development through all his various programmes, from student loans programmes to agribusiness programmes, to business loans programmes, to the Zonal Development Commissions, to all the laudable efforts of Mr. President.

“We met to review it and we are satisfied with his efforts so far. We are quite optimistic that in the next two years, he will hold better promises for Nigeria. We are confident in his efforts and activities. We are also endorsing him for the second time, come 2027. This will be done elaborately in a stakeholder statewide meeting that we are going to organise.”

He said further, “We also review the progress of reconciliation efforts of the party. Where are we coming from? Where are we? And where are we going? And we are satisfied that the party, at the Excos level, has done very well. And they say to whom much is given, much is expected.

“We haven’t seen that. We won’t rest on our words. We say we have a long way to go to ensure that this reconciliation is achieved a hundred percent.”

He added that, he also at the meeting briefed the stakeholders of his activities, as the state representative at the federal cabinet, assuring that many more laudable feats are still achievelable in the second half of the ongoing tenure.

“I also reported on my own efforts as their representative at the federal level, as the Honourable Minister of Power. My efforts, my activities, and how it has impacted the lives of Nigerians. The modest achievement we have made. And I also promised that we are going to do more. And we now talked about 2027. Well, we are confident and believe that this party, this state, is going to return to APC.

“All the efforts and what we are going to do is what we discussed. And how we are going to even extend and emphasise democratic principles, internal democracy within the party, so that the best candidates will actually emerge to represent APC at the election of 2027. This is the first stakeholders’ meeting that we are going to be doing.

 “I am also going to meet with all my colleagues in the National Assembly: the three senators, the nine House of Reps that we have. But first, party is supreme. We need to let the party know the steps we are going to take before we start taking those steps. That is what today’s meeting is all about.”

 Also, the State Chairman, Chief Abass said the meeting was part of an effort to reconcile the members and build a united front ahead of the election years.

 He said: “Well, I’m so delighted to be here today for this meeting at the instance of the Honourable Minister, and it was a very successful meeting. It was about finding lasting peace in the party. I’m quite happy with the outcome of it. The people should expect us to recover our position in the government house in 2027.

 “We have been going around reconciling the aggrieved members of the party. We have been doing that and we are on course. And today’s meeting has signalled the fact that we are having success at that. We have been doing what we are doing here in silence. This one is just an outward show of what we have been doing behind the scenes.”