03/09/2026
It was a spontaneous and fatherly gesture- Oyo APC gov candidate’s campaign team addresses viral video of man sitting on his lap
The campaign organisation of the Oyo State APC governorship candidate, Senator Sharafadeen Alli, has explained the context behind the viral video showing a male student of The Polytechnic, Ibadan, sitting on Alli’s lap.
On Wednesday, September 2, a video of the governorship candidate having a man sitting on his lap and briefly caressing the man’s lap raised eyebrows on social media.
In a statement released, the campaign organization said the male student and other students from the institution’s Department of Banking and Finance had visited Alli at his campaign office in Mokola, Ibadan, to invite him to their programme as well as interview him.
According to the statement, the students arrived at a time when the available seats were insufficient for everyone, prompting Alli to ask one of the students to sit on his lap so the interview could proceed. It said Alli’s decision was “a spontaneous and fatherly gesture” and maintained that there was no inappropriate intention behind the action.
“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.
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,” it stated
The campaign team urged the public to reject what it described as “cheap political blackmail” and any misleading narratives surrounding the footage.
