Osun 2026: Adeleke Takes Commanding Lead, Moves Over 66,000 Votes Ahead of Oyebamiji

Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party appears on course to secure re-election in the 2026 Osun State governorship contest, holding a commanding lead of more than 66,000 votes over his closest rival, Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as collation continues.

A compilation of results uploaded from the field on INEC’s Form EC8A shows Accord polling 491,975 votes — representing 51.9 percent — against the APC’s 425,731 votes, or 44.9 percent. That places Adeleke ahead by 66,244 votes, with results now in from 3,633 of the state’s 3,763 polling units across all 30 local government areas.

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Najeem Salaam of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) trails a distant third with 16,513 votes, or 1.7 percent, while the remaining parties on the ballot have collectively polled roughly 14,500 votes between them. A total of 948,768 valid votes have been counted so far.

Adeleke built a solid advantage early and has held it steady, maintaining a lead of around seven percentage points from the opening results through to the later stages of collation. That margin held firm as fresh figures arrived from Ife, Ede, Osogbo and Iwo local government areas, leaving Oyebamiji with little realistic path to close the gap.

Roughly 130 polling units remain outstanding, including several where voting was cancelled, but these are not expected to affect the eventual outcome.

Adeleke, who first won the governorship in 2022 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before defecting to Accord, is now seeking a second term at the Bola Ige Government House. A win here would be historic for his new party — the first governorship victory for Accord in Osun State.

Fifteen political parties were originally cleared for Saturday’s ballot, though two candidates withdrew ahead of the vote: Adesina Adeyemi-Doro of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), who went on to endorse Oyebamiji, and Simon Adewale of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), who threw his support behind Adeleke. Both parties, however, remained on the ballot.

INEC’s State Collation and Returning Officer is yet to formally declare a winner. Under Nigeria’s Electoral Act, a candidate must not only secure the highest number of votes cast but also satisfy the law’s geographical spread requirement before being declared elected.

The collation process has not been without incident. Osun PDP chairman Sunday Bisi was reportedly arrested at his residence in Ilesa shortly after casting his vote, a development Governor Adeleke condemned as an attempt to intimidate his supporters, while accusing the APC of working with security agents to obstruct result monitoring. INEC has not yet commented publicly on the matter.

This is a developing story. Final results are expected once INEC’s collation process concludes and the Returning Officer makes a formal declaration.