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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Elections & Politics

Campaign team explains why Oyo student sat on APC candidate’s lap

From The Punch · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Official statement Ongoing story
  • Sharafadeen Alli’s campaign team said Polytechnic Ibadan students visited his office to invite him to a programme and interview him.
  • It said the office lacked enough chairs, leading Alli to ask one student to sit on his lap so the interview could continue.
  • The team rejected online interpretations that sexualised the interaction and called for responsible reporting ahead of the 2027 Oyo governorship election.

The campaign organisation of Oyo State APC governorship candidate Senator Sharafadeen Alli says a viral video showed an awkward seating arrangement, not an inappropriate encounter. According to the team, a student from The Polytechnic, Ibadan, sat on Alli’s lap because there were not enough chairs during a visit to his campaign office in Mokola, Ibadan.

The students, from the institution’s Department of Banking and Finance, had come to invite Alli to their programme and interview him. The campaign said they arrived when the number of people present exceeded the available seating capacity, prompting what it called a spontaneous decision to allow the interview to proceed.

The video also showed Alli briefly caressing the student’s lap. That gesture drew reactions online, with some users interpreting the interaction differently. Alli’s campaign team condemned what it described as attempts to sexualise the footage, saying those interpretations were misleading and politically motivated.

It is deeply unfortunate that political desperation has descended to this level, where an ordinary interaction between a fatherly political leader and students who came to seek support for their programme is deliberately twisted into something sordid.

· Sharafadeen Alli campaign teamThe campaign rejected online interpretations of the viral video.

“It is deeply unfortunate that political desperation has descended to this level, where an ordinary interaction between a fatherly political leader and students who came to seek support for their programme is deliberately twisted into something sordid,” the team said.

It urged media organisations and social media users to avoid sensationalism and innuendo. The campaign also called the controversy “cheap political blackmail” and said the 2027 election should focus on ideas, competence, development and residents’ welfare.

Those who know Senator Sharafadeen Alli understand his disposition towards young people and his fatherly relationship with them. There is no basis whatsoever for the offensive insinuations being attached to this video.

· Sharafadeen Alli campaign teamThe team defended Alli and urged the public to disregard the allegations.
About this summary

Originally published by The Punch in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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