A major point of discussion arising from Ambassador Ademola Omiyale’s recent interview on the Random Podcast is the political identity of Iwo-Ate, the community associated with APC’s 2027 Oyo State Deputy Governorship candidate, Hon. Adesoji Adedeji.
The clarification is important: Iwo-Ate is not Ogbomoso. It is a community in Ogo-Oluwa Local Government Area of Oyo State. This distinction should not be interpreted as an attempt to demean Iwo-Ate or diminish the significance of its people. Rather, it is a question of geography, political representation and electoral arithmetic.
Available official records place Iwo-Ate within Ogo-Oluwa LGA. The Oyo State Government’s records, for instance, identify Iwo-Ate facilities and institutions under Ogo-Oluwa, while the Independent National Electoral Commission’s polling-unit directory lists Mowolowo/Iwo-Ate Registration Area separately within Ogo-Oluwa.
This becomes particularly relevant because Iwo-Ate has attracted considerable national attention through the emergence of Dr. Zacch Adedeji, the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), who has repeatedly been identified in credible reports as being from Iwo-Ate, Ogo-Oluwa. Adedeji himself spoke publicly in Iwo-Ate in January 2025 while addressing speculation about his possible 2027 governorship ambition.
But political prominence and electoral strength are not necessarily the same thing.
According to INEC’s polling-unit directory, the Mowolowo/Iwo-Ate Registration Area has eight polling units. The same directory lists the eight units individually, from D.C. School, Mowolowo, to Onilu Village Junction. More recent electoral data also puts the registration area at about 4,859 registered voters, illustrating the relatively modest size of its electoral base compared with major population centres in Oyo State.
Consequently, the argument that Iwo-Ate alone could constitute a substantial voting bloc for any governorship ticket requires considerable qualification. Its political importance may derive less from the number of votes physically located within the community and more from the networks, personalities and political influence associated with it.
That distinction matters in the 2027 Oyo political equation.
The APC has now formally presented Senator Sharafadeen Alli as its governorship candidate, with Hon. Soji Adedeji as his running mate. The party unveiled the ticket alongside its other candidates in September 2026.
This has inevitably generated discussion about regional calculations.
Traditionally, political parties in Oyo State have paid considerable attention to the distribution of tickets across the state's major political zones and voting centres. Ibadan, as the state's dominant urban centre, carries enormous electoral significance, while Oke-Ogun and Ogbomoso also represent important blocs in the wider political calculation.
The interesting contrast is that while the APC's governorship candidate, Alli, comes from Oyo South, the party's deputy candidate, Adedeji, is associated with Iwo-Ate in Ogo-Oluwa. Yet political messaging around the ticket can easily connect his identity to the broader Ogbomoso political environment because Ogo-Oluwa forms part of the wider Ogbomoso zone.
That is where the controversy highlighted by Omiyale's interview becomes particularly interesting.
The Allied Peoples Movement (APM), for example, has also structured its ticket with a different regional calculation. APM's governorship candidate is Bimbo Adekanmbi, while Engr. Mufutau Ope Salawu was unveiled as the party's deputy governorship candidate.
Against this background, critics may question whether APC's attempt to associate its deputy candidate with the larger Ogbomoso political space is principally an electoral strategy rather than a reflection of Iwo-Ate's actual demographic weight.
There is, however, an important distinction between political strategy and proven fact. The assertion that APC selected Adedeji because of sentiment, federal influence or favouritism remains an interpretation unless supported by direct evidence from the party or those involved in the selection process.
What can be established is that Iwo-Ate is a distinct community in Ogo-Oluwa, that it has a relatively small documented electoral footprint, and that Adedeji's emergence has nevertheless given the community an importance far beyond its numerical size.
The real political question, therefore, is not whether Iwo-Ate deserves recognition. It clearly does.
The question is whether its political influence should be presented as synonymous with that of Ogbomoso—and whether the distinction between the two is being blurred for electoral relevance ahead of 2027.
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