The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has officially declared Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party the winner of Saturday’s Osun State governorship election, securing him a second term in office after he polled more than half of all votes cast across the state.
According to INEC, Adeleke won 511,067 votes, representing 50.8 per cent of the 1,005,800 total votes cast across the state’s 3,763 polling units. His closest rival, Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress (APC), came second with 444,815 votes, representing 44.2 per cent, while Najeem Salaam of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) placed a distant third with 17,180 votes.
The remaining 12 candidates on the ballot cumulatively shared about 5 per cent of the vote. INEC data also showed that 20,721 ballots were rejected, representing roughly 2.06 per cent of the total votes cast.
Saturday’s election, held on August 15, 2026 after being rescheduled by INEC from an original date of August 8, was conducted across the state’s 30 local government areas and 332 wards. Fifteen political parties were cleared to contest, although neither the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) nor the Labour Party fielded a candidate.
Ahead of the poll, INEC reported that Osun State had 2,339,233 registered voters, the highest number recorded in the state’s governorship election history of whom 81.5 per cent had collected their Permanent Voter Cards and were eligible to vote.
Adeleke, who won the governorship in 2022 as the PDP candidate before defecting to the Accord Party ahead of this year’s election, becomes the first Accord Party candidate to win the Osun governorship since the party’s founding.
The declaration followed a lengthy collation process that unfolded through Saturday night and into Sunday morning, during which INEC returning officers announced results at each of the state’s 30 local government collation centres. Adeleke ultimately won 19 of the 30 LGAs, while Oyebamiji secured 11.
The governor recorded his widest margins in his home local government area of Ede North, where he polled 35,427 votes to Oyebamiji’s 10,283, as well as in Ede South and Iwo. He also won in Osogbo, the state capital and a historically APC-leaning area, defeating Oyebamiji 36,480 votes to 30,474, a result seen as particularly significant given the LGA’s political history. Oyebamiji, in turn, won several LGAs including Irewole, Irepodun, Obokun and Atakumosa West.
The collation process was not without controversy. Some election observers reported that Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines malfunctioned at several polling units, leading to delays in accreditation and voting. Separately, at least one Accord Party member was found to be in possession of multiple Permanent Voter Cards, according to reports from election monitors. The election period was also marked by reports of intimidation, vote-buying allegations from both major parties, and sporadic violence, including gunfire reported in parts of Osogbo on election night.
With the official declaration now made, Adeleke is set to be sworn in for a second term as governor of Osun State. As is customary in closely contested Nigerian elections, the outcome may yet be subject to legal challenge at the election petition tribunal, though no formal challenge had been announced by the APC or other parties as of the time of this report.
