Oyo State APC chieftain, Hon. Sunday Babalola, has taken Governor Seyi Makinde and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) governorship candidate, Bimbo Adekanmbi, to the cleaners over their professional backgrounds and claims being made in the emerging political battle ahead of the 2027 governorship election.

Babalola spoke during an appearance on Boṣenlọ, a current affairs programme anchored by Tayo Oyeladun on Lagelu FM, where he took particular exception to Governor Makinde’s comments on the legal profession and the professional record of APC governorship candidate, Senator Sharafadeen Alli.

Babalola challenged Makinde to produce evidence of where he actually practised as an electrical engineer, sarcastically questioning whether the governor ever engaged in the kind of field engineering work that would require the use of a safety helmet and boots.

He also accused Makinde of displaying ignorance about the practice of law by suggesting that a lawyer must necessarily be a courtroom practitioner before his professional experience can be recognised.

According to Babalola, litigation is only one aspect of the legal profession, noting that lawyers can practise in several other areas without necessarily appearing regularly in court.

To drive home his point, Babalola cited Nureni Adeniran, the SUBEB chairman under the Makinde administration, whom he described as a lawyer who, despite not being known primarily for courtroom litigation, has practised other aspects of the legal profession.

Babalola’s broadside did not end with Makinde. He also turned his attention to Bimbo Adekanmbi, questioning the depth of the APM candidate’s professional experience in accounting.

The APC chieftain challenged Adekanmbi’s accounting credentials, arguing that if he wanted to parade himself as an accomplished accounting professional, he should be able to point to experience in major accounting and auditing firms such as Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Babalola went further, making a particularly pointed allegation about Adekanmbi’s early professional experience. He claimed that, rather than building his career in a high-profile accounting and auditing firm, Adekanmbi was at one time a home teacher for the children of the late former Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, while the Ajimobi family was resident in the United States.

The comments have added a fresh layer to the increasingly fierce political contest in Oyo State, where questions about professional experience, competence and public records are becoming part of the arguments being deployed by rival political camps ahead of 2027.

For Babalola, however, the central issue appears straightforward: politicians who question the professional records of their opponents should themselves be prepared to subject their own credentials and experience to the same level of scrutiny.

And on Boṣenlọ, he made it clear that he was prepared to do exactly that.