After backlash, Oyo APC guber candidate explains why male student sat on his lap

The campaign organisation of Sharafadeen Alli, the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Oyo state, has explained why a male student of The Polytechnic, Ibadan, sat on the politician’s lap.

In a viral video circulating online, the student is seen sitting on Alli’s lap during an interaction at his campaign office in Mokola, Ibadan, the capital of Oyo.

Alli was also seen stroking the student’s thigh, sparking outrage on social media.

Addressing the encounter in a statement issued on Wednesday, Alli’s campaign organisation said the student and other members of the department of banking and finance at the institution visited the APC governorship candidate to invite him to their programme and interview him.

The campaign council said the students arrived when there were not enough seats for everyone, prompting Alli to ask one of them to sit on his lap.

The campaign organisation said the gesture was “a spontaneous and fatherly gesture” and had no inappropriate intention.

“The number of people present exceeded the available seating capacity, leaving insufficient chairs for everyone,” the statement reads.

The campaign organisation accused some online platforms of attempting to sexualise the interaction, describing their interpretations as 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,” the campaign council said.

“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.”

The campaign council called on media organisations and social media users to be cautious when reporting the incident, describing the reactions trailing the video as “cheap political blackmail”. (TheCable)