Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party has won re-election as Governor of Osun State, defeating his closest challenger, Bola Oyebamiji of All Progressives Congress (APC), in Saturday’s governorship election.
Gatekeepers News reports that Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Adeleke the winner after the collation of results from all 30 Local Government Areas of the state at the commission’s collation centre in Osogbo in the early hours of Sunday.
The Returning Officer for the election, Joshua Ogunwole, announced that Adeleke polled 511,067 votes to defeat Oyebamiji, who secured 444,815 votes. African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate, Najeem Salaam, came a distant third with 17,180 votes.
The result gave Adeleke a margin of 66,252 votes over Oyebamiji and secured him another four-year term as Governor of the state.
Adeleke’s victory came after a closely contested campaign against Oyebamiji, a former Commissioner for Finance in Osun and the APC’s candidate. The contest was largely viewed as a two-horse race between the incumbent Governor and the APC candidate, while Salaam emerged as the major third-force contender.
The election was held on Saturday, August 15, with 15 political parties fielding candidates. Adeleke contested under the Accord platform after leaving the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), while Oyebamiji represented the APC.
According to the results from the 30 local government areas, Adeleke won 19 LGAs, while Oyebamiji secured 11. Adeleke recorded strong performances in areas including Ede North, Ede South, Osogbo, Ife East, Ife Central, Ife North, Ilesa West, Iwo and Egbedore. Oyebamiji, however, won several areas including Irewole, Boripe, Irepodun, Obokun, Atakunmosa West, Atakunmosa East, Isokan, Olaoluwa, Ife South and Olorunda.
The election marked Adeleke’s second bid for the Osun governorship seat after he defeated former Governor Gboyega Oyetola of the APC in the 2022 election. His latest victory means he will remain in office for another four years.
Adeleke’s re-election also places him among the few Osun Governors to have secured a second term through an election. He joins Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Rauf Aregbesola in the state’s political history of governors winning re-election.
INEC data showed that 1,005,800 votes were cast in the election, while 20,721 ballots were rejected. The state had 2,339,233 registered voters, with 81.50 per cent of registered voters having collected their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).
With INEC’s declaration, Adeleke is set to continue as Governor of Osun State for a second consecutive term.
