Nigeria’s Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke was on course to secure a second term in office on Sunday, as vote counting from Saturday’s gubernatorial election showed him holding a commanding lead over his closest rival.
According to figures from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), with results collated from the vast majority of the state’s 332 wards, Adeleke’s Accord Party had captured just over half of all votes cast, while Bola Oyebamiji of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) trailed with roughly 45 percent.
Adeleke, 66, first came to power in 2022 after defeating then-incumbent Governor Gboyega Oyetola on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He later switched to the Accord Party ahead of this year’s contest, a move that followed years of legal and political battles in the southwestern state, including a narrow defeat in 2018 and a court fight to reclaim his 2022 win after it was briefly annulled by a tribunal.
Fifteen parties fielded candidates in Saturday’s poll, though the race was widely seen as a two-horse contest between Adeleke and Oyebamiji. Turnout and vote counts were closely watched after reports of isolated violence and allegations of vote-buying in some polling units, though most of the state voted without major incident.
Should his lead hold, Adeleke would begin a fresh four-year term running through 2030, extending his tenure in a state that has seen frequent political turnover and legal disputes over governorship results in the past two decades.
INEC has yet to make a final declaration. Final results are expected once collation from the remaining wards is completed.
