The campaign organisation of All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Oyo State, Sharafadeen Alli, has explained the circumstances surrounding a viral video showing a male student sitting on the politician’s lap.
The video, which has attracted reactions on social media, showed Alli interacting with students from The Polytechnic, Ibadan, at his campaign office in the Mokola area of Ibadan, the state capital.
In the footage, one of the male students could be seen sitting on Alli’s lap while the politician appeared to touch the student’s thigh. The scene generated criticism from some social media users, with several people questioning the nature of the interaction.
Reacting to the backlash, Alli’s campaign organisation said the student was among a group from the institution’s Department of Banking and Finance who visited the APC candidate.
According to the campaign team, the students came to the office to invite Alli to one of their programmes and also conduct an interview with him.
The organisation explained that the number of students and other people present at the meeting was more than the available seating space. It said the situation led Alli to ask one of the students to sit on his lap during the interaction.
The campaign team described the act as an unplanned gesture from Alli towards the students and said it was not intended to have any inappropriate meaning.
It also rejected interpretations of the video suggesting that the interaction had a sexual nature. The organisation accused some social media users and online platforms of presenting the incident in a way that could damage Alli’s reputation for political reasons.
The campaign team further said Alli has maintained a friendly and fatherly relationship with young people and that the incident should be viewed within that context.
It called on media organisations and members of the public to exercise caution before drawing conclusions from the short video, arguing that the circumstances surrounding the encounter had been left out of some reports.
The organisation said the reactions to the footage were being used as a form of political attack against the APC candidate ahead of the Oyo State governorship election.
Alli is the APC candidate seeking to contest for the Oyo State governorship position, and the viral video has added to public attention around his campaign activities.
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