By Ismail Azeez, Osogbo
The All Progressives Congress (APC), Osun State, has rejected a prophecy by the leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Elijah Ayodele regarding the party’s success in the 2026 elections.
In a viral video, Ayodele claimed the APC would win only if former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola, the serving Minister of Marine and Blue Economy teamed up with the former Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola.
The APC, in a statement on Sunday signed by the party Director of Media and information, Chief Kola Olabisi, described Ayodele’s track record of failed prophecies.
The APC assured its members and supporters that the party will continue working towards victory in the 2026 elections without relying on those who have harmed the party in the past.
According to the statement, “As much as we would not deny Primate Ayodele of his right to the fundamental freedom of speech as provided for in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, we would like to point out to the controversial prophet who could better be addressed as a mere political analyst that he did not base his fallacious prophecy on the issue at stake on the reality on ground in the major opposition party in the state.
“Speaking from the angle of his prophecy of doom, Primate Ayodele’s political analytical statement spuriously tagged as a prophecy, failed to address the existing man-made human variables in place during the 2022 general elections in the state which are no longer there today.
“Prophesying that the political victory of the APC is hinged on the former dissident and disillusioned members of the party who verifiably, wickedly, glaringly and arrogantly worked against our party during the 2022 elections is tantamount to dressing them in borrowed robes and falsely giving them an exaggerated notion of their importance.
“We reject the Primate Ayodele’s fallacious prophecy which we consider to be in the realm of a figment of the imagination of the suspected mercantile prophet of which its prediction is aimed at causing unnecessary tension and friction within our party in Osun State.
“We would like to impress it on Prophet Ayodele and his discreet sponsors that our party which has been working assiduously round the clock to achieve victory in the said elections would continue to work for its victory without the enlistment of any metaphorical serpents who have become political pariahs and men of yesterday in the corridor of political power in the state because of their evil deeds unleashed on the party in the past.
“One wonders if Primate Ayodele should continue to do the same thing that did not profit him in the past the same way when it is even known in the secular world that the uncompromised hallmark of a genuine prophet of God should be engagement in prophecies of things to come and they happen as foretold.
“Part of the reasons why the prophecy of the compromised Primate Ayodele on the Osun State elections in 2026 should be disregarded and expressly consign to the dustbin of history is legendary.
“Has Primate Ayodele forgotten his failed prophecy in 2013 that former President Goodluck Jonathan would continue to rule till 2019 and that of 2015, that the Peoples Democratic Party PDP would win Kaduna State with a narrow margin but the APC’s candidate, Nasiru el-Rufai, won the governorship election by beating the PDP’s candidate, Ramalan Yero.
“The unfilled prophecy of Primate Ayodele that former Independent National Electoral Commission INEC chairman, Professor Atahiru Jega, would let Nigerians down during the 2015 elections ended up as a fallacious statement oozing out from the mouth of a mere political analyst.
“Another spectacular prediction from the stable of the controversial prophet which never saw the light of day in February 2023 was that the PDP Presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, would emerge as the next President of Nigeria as the then APC’s Presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, won the election convincingly and comfortably with over three million votes against Atiku.
“There was also a time when the prediction of Primate Ayodele that the late Senator Ifeanyi Uba would win the 2021 Anambra State governorship election did not come to pass as Ubah was resoundingly defeated by Governor Chukwuma Soludo, the then governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
“The failed prophecy of the leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church on the Super Eagles with reference to the 2021 Africa Cup of Nation’s is still fresh in the minds of the discerning members of the society.
“We also would not forget so soon the prediction of Primate Ayodele that the APC candidate, Governor Hope Uzodinma, should not waste his money and time running for a second term as he would be roundly defeated. But expectedly as usual, the prediction ended up to be a monumental fallacy,” the statement added.