Governor Ademola Adeleke has levelled explosive allegations against the All Progressives Congress (APC), accusing elements within the opposition party of hatching a plot to disrupt the forthcoming poll.
The allegations, made public on Wednesday through a statement signed by the governor’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, signal what promises to be a fiercely contested electoral season in a state that has long been a battleground between Nigeria’s two dominant political forces.
Speaking through his media office, Adeleke did not mince words. His administration accused unnamed actors within the APC of abandoning democratic norms and resorting to what the statement described as “anti-democratic tactics,” a move the governor’s camp attributed squarely to the opposition’s fear of electoral defeat.
“Having seen clearly that Osun people have rejected them, they are now resorting to anti-democratic means in a last-ditch effort to secure power,” the statement read, in language that was as combative as it was deliberate.
While the governor stopped short of providing specific details about the alleged disruption plot, a conspicuous omission that opposition figures were quick to exploit, his camp insisted that the threat was real, credible, and rooted in the APC’s own internal reckoning with its declining fortunes in the state.
Central to Adeleke’s offensive is a battery of opinion surveys that his camp claims were commissioned between late 2025 and March 2026. According to the governor’s office, those polls painted a grim picture for the APC, placing the party’s popularity below 30 percent among Osun voters, while the incumbent governor himself purportedly enjoyed an approval rating of between 68 and 72 percent.
If accurate, those figures would represent a commanding lead that few incumbents in Nigeria’s volatile political landscape could dream of. The governor’s camp wasted no time drawing that conclusion.
“This clearly shows that Governor Adeleke enjoys overwhelming support from the people. The opposition can already see the outcome ahead of August 15,” the statement added.
Political analysts, however, caution that self-commissioned polling data released by a sitting administration must be treated with appropriate scepticism, and that the true test of public sentiment remains the ballot box itself.
Beyond the broad allegations, Adeleke’s camp trained its sights on what it described as deepening fractures within the Osun APC. The statement singled out recent public remarks by Akin Ogunbiyi, a prominent political figure in the state, concerning President Bola Tinubu’s position, claiming those comments sent shockwaves through APC factions and inflamed tensions, particularly among loyalists of former governor Adegboyega Oyetola.
Oyetola, who lost the 2022 governorship election to Adeleke in a result that went through prolonged legal battles before being upheld, remains a towering figure within Osun’s opposition politics. Any suggestion of internal discord within his camp is certain to attract scrutiny as the August election draws nearer.
The statement further alleged that the APC had attempted to destabilize other smaller political platforms and had pushed for their deregistration after failing to bring those platforms under its control, an allegation that, if proven, would raise serious questions about the opposition’s democratic credentials.
The APC was in no mood to absorb the governor’s salvos quietly. The party’s Osun spokesperson, Kola Olabisi, came out swinging, dismissing Adeleke’s allegations as nothing more than the anxious ramblings of a political camp rattled by its own internal hemorrhaging.
Olabisi deployed what he called “simple arithmetic” to make his case, reeling off a list of prominent political figures who, he claimed, had abandoned Adeleke’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) fold—among them Wole Oke, Fadahunsi, Ajilesoro, Dotun Babayemi, and the very Akin Ogunbiyi whom Adeleke referenced in his statement.
“So, what is left of their party? Apart from the fact that their party is unpopular, it is also spineless,” Olabisi declared, in a broadside that reflected the raw intensity of the rivalry between both camps.
He urged the people of Osun to disregard the governor’s allegations, describing Adeleke as someone who “doesn’t know what he is “saying”—language that, while undiplomatic, underscored just how high the political stakes have become.
What is clear from Wednesday’s exchange is that the battle for Osun State has well and truly begun in earnest. The mutual recriminations, allegations of anti-democratic scheming on one side, and countercharges of mass defection and political decay on the other, are a foretaste of what is likely to be an increasingly turbulent campaign season.
For now, with allegations flying and tempers flaring, the people of Osun State find themselves at the center of a political storm, one whose full force is yet to be felt.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
The political battle for Osun State‘s governorship is heating up well ahead of the August 15, 2026, election. Governor Adeleke’s allegations of an APC disruption plot, backed by poll numbers showing his commanding lead, and the APC’s fierce counter-accusations of mass defections from the PDP, reveal one undeniable truth: both parties are rattled, and neither is confident of an easy victory.
