Governor Ademola Adeleke has maintained a strong lead in the Osun governorship election as collation of results continues across the state’s 30 local government areas.
Figures compiled by the Nigeria Elections Intelligence System show that results from 303 of Osun’s 332 wards had been collated by Saturday evening. Adeleke, the Accord Party candidate, had polled 177,572 votes. That represents 50.5 per cent of ballots counted so far in the Osun governorship election.
His closest rival, Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress, trailed with 158,588 votes, or 45.1 per cent. Najeem Salaam of the African Democratic Congress sat in third place with 5,917 votes as collation proceeded.
The same figures put registered voters in the affected areas at 845,100. Of these, 361,500 were accredited to vote. That places turnout, based on results collated so far, at 42.8 per cent. It marks a modest rise on the 2022 Osun governorship election, which recorded turnout of just over 42 per cent.
Preliminary figures from areas already collated suggest turnout may ultimately finish slightly above the level recorded in 2022, although the final statewide turnout remains subject to official confirmation as collation continues.
Saturday’s poll was rescheduled by the Independent National Electoral Commission from 8 August. It was Adeleke’s second attempt at securing a fresh mandate in the Osun governorship election. He first won the seat in 2022 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party. An election tribunal overturned that victory in January 2023 and awarded it to his predecessor, Gboyega Oyetola. Adeleke appealed and remained in office while the case moved through the courts.
Ahead of Saturday’s vote, Adeleke defected from the PDP to the Accord Party. Fourteen parties were cleared by INEC to contest the poll. The PDP and the Labour Party did not field candidates this time.
Oyebamiji is a former managing director of the National Inland Waterways Authority. He previously served in Oyetola’s cabinet before joining the APC ticket for the Osun governorship election. Salaam, a former Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, is running on the ADC platform. He has positioned himself as an alternative to the two dominant parties.
Voting was largely peaceful across most of the state. Isolated cases of vote buying, intimidation and technical glitches with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System were reported in some areas. Election observers under the European Union’s Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria programme urged calm. They confirmed some of the incidents while collation continued.
Independent election observers also reported hundreds of electoral offences across monitored polling units, including vote trading, voter intimidation and ballot exposure incidents. Several BVAS malfunctions were recorded during the day, although many were resolved before voting ended.
INEC‘s Result Viewing Portal continued to receive polling unit results late into Saturday evening. By around 8pm, more than 3,000 of the expected 3,763 polling unit results had been uploaded, representing over 80 per cent of the statewide total as collation progressed across all local government areas.
The commission’s returning officer is expected to formally declare the outcome of the Osun governorship election once all outstanding results have been received and verified.
Adeleke, 66, has governed Osun since November 2022. He comes from a prominent Osun political family. His elder brother, Isiaka Adeleke, was the state’s first civilian governor after Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999. His nephew is the singer Davido.
Should the current figures hold, Adeleke would secure a second term. The contest has drawn attention well beyond Osun. Its outcome carries weight for the balance of power among Nigeria’s south west states ahead of the 2027 general election, making the Osun governorship election one of Nigeria’s most closely watched state contests this year.
