Osun election update: INEC declares Accord candidate, Adeleke, Governor

Incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke has secured a second term in office after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared him winner of the 2026 Osun State governorship election held on Saturday.
Adeleke, who contested the election on the platform of the Accord Party, defeated his closest challenger, Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress (APC), with 511,067 votes against 444,815 votes. The victory gave the incumbent a winning margin of 66,252 votes.
The declaration was made in the early hours of Sunday by the State Returning Officer, Prof. Joshua Olalekan Ogunwole, after INEC completed the collation of results from all 30 local government areas in the state. Reports put the declaration at about 7:24am.

In declaring the result, Ogunwole said he was certifying the outcome of the election conducted on August 15, 2026, before formally returning Adeleke as governor-elect.
“Ademola Nurudeen-Jackson Adeleke, having satisfied the requirements of the law, is hereby declared the winner of the August 15 governorship election and returned elected,” Ogunwole announced.
The result marked the end of a keenly fought contest in which the Accord and APC emerged as the dominant forces. The African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate, Najeem Salaam, finished a distant third with 17,180 votes.
Adeleke’s victory was built on a broad spread of support across the state, with the Accord candidate winning 19 of the 30 local government areas, while Oyebamiji secured 11 LGAs, according to the final collation figures.
Among the areas where Adeleke recorded significant victories were Ede North, Ede South, Osogbo, Ife North, Ife East, Ife Central, Iwo, Egbedore, Odo-Otin, Oriade, Ifelodun, Orolu, Aiyedaade, Aiyedire, Boluwaduro, Ilesa West and Ifedayo.
In Ede North, Accord secured 35,427 votes, comfortably ahead of APC’s 10,283, while Ede South also produced a decisive result for Adeleke, with Accord polling 26,188 votes against APC’s 6,219.
The governor also won Osogbo, the state capital, where Accord scored 36,480 votes compared with APC’s 30,474. In Ife East, Adeleke’s party recorded 27,201 votes, defeating Oyebamiji’s 18,600.
Accord equally prevailed in Iwo with 27,085 votes against APC’s 19,660, while in Ife Central, Adeleke secured 21,171 votes compared with Oyebamiji’s 15,913.
The APC, however, demonstrated considerable strength in several parts of the state. Oyebamiji won Irewole, where he recorded 29,972 votes against Accord’s 10,934, as well as Olorunda, Ilesa East, Boripe, Irepodun, Obokun, Atakunmosa East, Atakunmosa West, Isokan, Ola-Oluwa and Ife South.
Despite those victories, the APC’s performance was not enough to close the statewide gap. Oyebamiji’s 444,815 votes left him 66,252 votes behind Adeleke, while ADC’s Salaam remained well behind the two leading candidates.
INEC said 2,339,544 voters were registered for the election, while 1,010,684 voters were accredited. A total of 1,005,800 votes were cast during the exercise.
Of the votes cast, 985,079 were declared valid, while 20,721 votes were rejected, according to the figures read by the Returning Officer during the final declaration.
The other political parties recorded significantly smaller totals. ADP polled 2,946 votes, ZLP 2,482, AA 2,308, APGA 1,475, AAC 1,458, YPP 534, APM 234, SDP 155, NNPP 118, APP 114, BP 111 and PRP 83.
The election was contested by 15 political parties, with Adeleke seeking to extend his stay in office after first winning the Osun governorship election in 2022. The 2026 contest was fought against the backdrop of an intense campaign season and a major political realignment in the state.
Adeleke’s emergence on the Accord platform was itself part of the political realignment preceding the election. The governor had moved away from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), under which he won the 2022 election, and secured the Accord ticket for the latest contest.
His re-election now puts him among the small group of Osun governors to secure a second elected term. Business Post reported that he joins Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Rauf Aregbesola in the state’s political history as governors who won second terms through elections, although Oyinlola’s tenure was later overturned by the courts.
Following the declaration, supporters of the governor took to the streets of Osogbo to celebrate the result, with reports of jubilation in parts of the state capital.
The victory also drew an immediate reaction from the governor’s nephew, music star David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, who celebrated the result on X with the brief message: “We did it, Uncle.”
With the final results now declared, INEC has formally concluded the collation process for the 2026 Osun governorship election. Adeleke’s 511,067 votes have secured him another four years at the helm of affairs in Osun State, while the APC’s Oyebamiji and ADC’s Salaam finish second and third respectively.