Akande, Omisore Handshake Stirs Osun APC Ahead Of Saturday Poll

A single photograph did more political work in Osun State over the weekend than several days of campaign rallies. It showed Chief Bisi Akande, governor of the state between 1999 and 2003 and pioneer national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, walking hand in hand with Senator Iyiola Omisore, the man who served as his deputy and later became his fiercest political adversary. The image, taken at Akande’s country home in Ila Orangun, went viral on Sunday, five days before voters in the state choose a governor.

The Punch reported that the photograph was taken after a meeting of the Osun APC Elders’ Caucus, known locally as Agba Osun, held at Akande’s residence on Saturday. Two participants who spoke to the newspaper on condition of anonymity said the gathering reviewed the party’s governorship campaign and offered suggestions to strengthen its position. One of them said, “Many elders of the party were present and, majorly, the group, Osun APC Elders’ Caucus, reviewed the party’s campaigns so far and made some suggestions.” Asked whether Akande and Omisore held a separate private meeting afterwards, the source said, “No, not to my knowledge. After the meeting, we all left. So I’m unaware of any private meeting between Baba Akande and Senator Omisore.”

The Director General of the Omisore Campaign Organisation, Mr Ajibola Famurewa, who attended the meeting, confirmed the circumstances of the photograph. “It was after the meeting of the Osun APC Elder Caucus (Agba Osun) at Chief Bisi Akande’s house that Otunba and Baba Akande went to his dining room for lunch. The photograph was taken at the meeting,” he said. He added, “After the lunch, Baba escorted him out to his vehicle, and we had a very reasonable discussion, which was all about what we have to do to win the election. Everybody said what they had in mind.” On the substance of the deliberations, Famurewa said, “Yesterday, we assessed the whole campaign and highlighted where we think we have issues. He (Omisore) provided solutions, and everyone rubbed minds together, and we arrived at a reasonable conclusion.”

The picture matters because of what preceded it. Akande governed Osun on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy with Omisore as his deputy from May 1999. Their relationship collapsed publicly. The Osun State House of Assembly impeached Omisore in December 2002, and he was arrested shortly afterwards over the assassination of the then Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Bola Ige, who was shot dead at his Ibadan home on December 23, 2001. Omisore denied involvement throughout. He was elected senator for Osun East in 2003 while still in detention, and an Ibadan High Court discharged and acquitted him in 2004, citing contradictions, inconsistencies and insufficient evidence in the prosecution’s case. He went on to serve in the Senate until 2011 and later became APC National Secretary.

That history explains why party watchers read a lunch and a handshake as more than courtesy. Omisore was the first aspirant to pick the APC’s ₦50 million nomination and expression of interest forms in November 2025, but he was absent from the party’s December 2025 primary in Osogbo, where Bola Oyebamiji, former Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority and one time state Commissioner for Finance, emerged as consensus candidate by affirmation after other aspirants stepped down. Omisore later said publicly that he had accepted President Bola Tinubu’s position on the consensus arrangement, while maintaining that consensus should emerge from genuine agreement rather than the removal of stronger aspirants. In July, the APC National Working Committee named him among the 276 members of the national campaign council for the Osun poll, chaired by Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma and inaugurated in Abuja on July 28.

The Independent National Electoral Commission has put the register for the August 15 election at 2,339,233 voters, spread across 30 local government areas, 332 registration areas and 3,763 polling units. That is an increase of 384,433 on the 1,954,800 registered for the 2022 cycle. INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Ojo Amupitan, told stakeholders in Osogbo that 4,427 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System devices have been customised for the poll, including 664 backup units representing a 15 per cent operational reserve. He also extended permanent voter card collection to July 31 after disclosing that 322,822 newly registered voters, about 62 per cent, had picked up their cards.

Osun has a long record of narrow outcomes. The 2018 governorship contest ended with Adegboyega Oyetola of the APC polling 255,505 votes against Ademola Adeleke’s 255,023, a margin of 482 votes after a supplementary poll. Four years later, Adeleke reversed the result, securing 403,371 votes to Oyetola’s 375,027, a gap of 28,344 in an election with turnout put at roughly 42 per cent. Adeleke won 17 local government areas, Oyetola 13.

Fourteen parties are on the ballot this time, according to the final list signed by INEC Secretary, Dr Rose Oriaran Anthony, on March 4, 2026. The Peoples Democratic Party, which won in 2022, and the Labour Party did not field candidates. Adeleke is seeking a second term on the Accord platform after leaving the PDP amid the leadership crisis that stalled its primary process, retaining Kola Adewusi as running mate. Oyebamiji is running with Benjamin Adereti, while former Speaker of the Osun Assembly, Najeem Salaam, is the African Democratic Congress candidate with Yemisi Agiri as his deputy.

The political map shifted again on Sunday when a PDP faction led by former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who ran the state from 2003 to 2010, declared support for Oyebamiji at the WOCDIF Event Centre in Osogbo, joined by former Secretary to the State Government Fatai Akinbade and former PDP South West National Vice Chairman Tajudeen Oladipo. Oyinlola insisted the group was not defecting. “We are not here to announce our defection from the PDP. Rather, we are exercising our conscience as stakeholders who have served this state and who believe that, at this particular moment, Osun State requires a different direction,” he said. Oyebamiji responded that he was “deeply honoured” by the endorsement.

The run up has been tense. The Nigeria Police Force says about 15,000 personnel will be deployed, with the Commissioner of Police for the election, Samuel Erale Etaifo, stating that “this governorship election is a federal election” and that those arrested for electoral offences will be moved to Force Headquarters in Abuja. Human rights lawyer Femi Falana, speaking on Channels Television, put politically linked deaths in the state in recent weeks at not fewer than 30. Separately, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission placed a Post No Debit restriction on an Osun State Government account on August 5, citing an investigation into an alleged ₦11bn mishandling of ecology, intervention and federation account funds. Adeleke called the action “a threat to democracy and a dangerous precedent,” while the commission maintains it acted to protect public funds. The matter is before the courts and remains unresolved.

Candidates signed a peace accord in Osogbo on July 30. Amupitan told them BVAS accreditation remains the sole statutory route to voting, and urged residents to “turn out peacefully on Saturday, 15th August 2026, vote your conscience.”

With the APC describing the poll as a “must win” test ahead of 2027, and with Ile Ife and the wider Osun East bloc historically decisive, the value of a viral photograph may ultimately be measured in polling unit returns rather than symbolism.