The race for the Osun State governorship entered its decisive stage on Saturday night as incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke established an early lead over his closest challenger, All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Bola Oyebamiji, with results from 303 of the state’s 332 wards collated.
Provisional figures available from the ongoing collation showed Adeleke, who is contesting on the platform of the Accord Party, with 177,572 votes, against 158,588 votes recorded by Oyebamiji. The difference stood at 18,984 votes with results from 29 wards still outstanding.
African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate Najeem Salaam was a distant third with 5,917 votes in the results available at the time of reporting.
The figures are provisional and do not constitute a declaration of the winner. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is expected to announce the final result only after the outstanding results have been received, verified and formally collated by the Returning Officer.
The election, held across Osun’s 30 local government areas, is one of the most closely watched off-cycle governorship contests in the country. INEC had listed 2,339,233 registered voters, spread across 3,763 polling units and 332 wards, for the August 15 election. Fourteen political parties were cleared to participate, although the contest had increasingly been regarded as a three-way race involving Adeleke, Oyebamiji and Salaam.
Adeleke ahead, but race not over
The emerging figures put Adeleke at roughly 50.5 per cent of the votes counted, while Oyebamiji has about 45.1 per cent. Salaam has just under two per cent.
The governor’s advantage is significant, but the remaining wards mean the contest cannot yet be considered settled. The distribution of the outstanding votes will determine whether Oyebamiji can narrow the gap or whether Adeleke can extend his lead before the final declaration.
The reported collation figures indicate that about 351,500 votes had been adjudged valid, while approximately 7,200 ballots had been rejected. About 361,500 voters were reported as accredited in the figures accompanying the ongoing collation.
INEC’s electronic Result Viewing Portal has also been receiving polling-unit results as the exercise progresses. Earlier on Saturday, reports indicated that hundreds of polling-unit result sheets had already been uploaded to the portal.
The different percentages being reported for wards, polling units and uploaded results should not be conflated: the state has 332 wards but 3,763 polling units, meaning the completion of ward-level collation does not necessarily correspond to the same percentage of polling-unit results uploaded electronically.
A contest reshaped by Adeleke’s defection
The election is particularly significant because Adeleke is seeking a second term on a different platform from the one on which he won the 2022 election.
Adeleke left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in December 2025 and joined the Accord Party, citing the prolonged crisis within the PDP and the need for a stable political platform for his re-election bid.
His political machinery subsequently received a major boost when the Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly and the state’s 24 other PDP lawmakers joined Accord in February. The move effectively strengthened Adeleke’s legislative and political structure ahead of the election.
The PDP itself did not field a candidate in the election, while the party’s Osun leadership declared support for Adeleke despite his departure from the party.
Adeleke’s principal challenger, Oyebamiji, brings extensive experience in public finance and administration to the contest. He previously served as Osun State Commissioner for Finance and later became Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority before securing the APC governorship ticket.
The APC candidate’s campaign centred on what his team called a “Prosperity Agenda”, while Adeleke campaigned on a renewed version of his administration’s five-point agenda. Salaam of the ADC also mounted a significant campaign around a 10-point programme.
Security concerns shadow collation
While the vote-counting process continued, Adeleke called on President Bola Tinubu to direct security agencies to protect the integrity of the collation exercise.
In a statement posted on X on Saturday evening, the governor alleged that there were attempts to interfere with activities at collation centres and urged the President to ensure that security personnel deployed to the state remained neutral and protected the electoral process.
He specifically mentioned the Nigeria Police Force, Department of State Services, Nigerian Army and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, asking them to ensure that the final outcome reflected the votes cast by Osun residents.
Adeleke also appealed to INEC to maintain transparency and professionalism through the final stages of collation and urged residents to remain calm and law-abiding.
His warning came against a backdrop of heightened political tension surrounding the election. In the weeks preceding the poll, concerns had been raised about violence, political intimidation and electoral malpractice, prompting close attention from security agencies, civil society organisations and election observers.
The candidates and political parties had earlier signed a peace accord committing themselves to a peaceful electoral process. Fourteen parties were represented at the signing ceremony ahead of the election.
All three leading candidates also come from Osun West Senatorial District — Adeleke from Ede, Oyebamiji from Irewole and Salaam from Ejigbo — making the geographical dynamics of the remaining results particularly important.
Final declaration still awaited
With 29 wards still to be collated, the immediate focus has shifted to the remaining results and the conduct of the final stages of the process.
Adeleke currently holds a margin of nearly 19,000 votes, but the outstanding results could still alter the final figures. Until INEC completes the statutory collation and the Returning Officer makes a formal declaration, neither candidate can be officially declared the winner.
The commission had repeatedly pledged to conduct a credible, transparent and peaceful election, with INEC Chairman Joash Amupitan saying before the poll that the commission was operationally and logistically prepared for the exercise.