Adeleke’s Fight to Stay Governor of Osun

Ademola Adeleke is the Governor of Osun State and a man currently fighting on several fronts at once to keep his job.

Adeleke won the governorship on the PDP platform in 2022. When a national leadership crisis tore the PDP apart, he left and adopted the Accord Party as his vehicle for re-election. The August 15, 2026, election is now weeks away.

The APC’s candidate against him is Bola Oyebamiji, presented as a financial expert, and the party is pressing every lever available to push Adeleke out before the polls.

The most serious attack is legal. A Federal High Court recently ordered INEC to deregister five parties, including the Accord Party. The APC argues that this ruling removes Adeleke from the ballot entirely.

Adeleke’s team is not accepting that. They point to an existing Court of Appeal order that placed a stay of proceedings on the matter, and they have launched his campaign publicly, insisting appellate courts will overturn the lower court’s decision. The legal battle is live and unresolved.

The APC also argues that Adeleke, by leaving the PDP, has lost his grassroots infrastructure. He counters that with support from the Nigerian Labour Congress, trade unions, and civil servants who have backed him, independent of party structures.

At the local government level, his administration has already moved. New LG elections were conducted, replacing APC chairmen whose tenure extensions courts had declared unconstitutional. The opposition read that as an attempt to control the electoral machinery on the ground.

Adeleke’s campaign has also reported localised violence and called on the Inspector General of Police to intervene, accusing the APC of using intimidation tactics ahead of the vote.

With weeks to polling day, the legal question around the Accord Party’s status remains the most dangerous variable. Everything else, Adeleke appears ready to fight through.