Oyo APC Guber Candidate’s Campaign Defends Viral Video Of Student Sitting On His Lap

The campaign organisation of Oyo State APC governorship candidate, Senator Sharafadeen Alli, has defended a viral video showing a student of The Polytechnic, Ibadan, sitting on his lap during an interview.

According to the campaign, the student and other members of the institution’s Department of Banking and Finance had visited Alli at his campaign office in Mokola, Ibadan, to seek support for one of their programmes and interview him.

The campaign said the venue became overcrowded, with insufficient seats for everyone, prompting Alli to ask one of the students to sit on his lap so the interview could continue.

It described the gesture as spontaneous and fatherly, insisting that it had no sexual or inappropriate intention.

The footage, which has sparked mixed reactions online, also shows Alli appearing to touch the student’s thigh during the interaction.

His campaign, however, accused some online platforms of deliberately sexualising the encounter and twisting it for political purposes.

The campaign urged the public and media organisations to view the incident in its full context, describing the controversy as “cheap political blackmail” ahead of the 2027 Oyo governorship election.