Ladi Adebutu In Huge Preparation To Win Abiodun’s Late Ally, Ijaya’s Reps Seat For PDP

The stage is set for another test of political might between Governor Dapo Abiodun and Oladipupo Adebutu, the face of the main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State.

The governor is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

At stake is the Remo Federal House of Representatives seat occupied by Adewunmi Onanuga until she breathed her last on January 15, 2025.

Onanuga, famously known as Ijaya, was a staunch ally of Governor Dapo Abiodun.

Her shocking demise in January left the National Assembly seat covering Sagamu, Ikenne, and Remo North open for a bye-election to determine her successor.

Abiodun and Adebutu are both from Iperu, in the federal constituency.

They are locked in an intense supremacy battle, heightened by Abiodun getting the better of Adebutu in their last two engagements—the 2023 governorship election, which Abiodun won by less than fifteen votes, and the November 2024 local government election, which produced the chairman of their area. Adebutu passionately disputed both electoral victories.

Insiders say the PDP leader is, however, keen to score a big win by ensuring his party clinches the vacant Remo Federal House of Representatives seat.

“And talks are that he has an edge—he is a former occupier of the seat and left the position of his own volition to pursue his gubernatorial ambition in 2019,” sources say.

Emerging details reveal that as part of early and comprehensive planning, Adebutu, who is the brain behind PDP in Ogun State, has informally settled on a preferred candidate (ahead of primary election), and strategies are being fashioned around the person’s strengths and weaknesses.

Checks revealed that while there are talks of “considering serious contenders,” Governor Abiodun and his APC stakeholders have yet to have a clear plan on who will fly the party’s banner in the process to determine their late chieftain’s successor.

“But Adebutu is taking this very seriously. He is going about the preparation as a personal mission to prove he remains a formidable political force in the federal constituency and the state,” sources say.