Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke has denied that his alliance with President Bola Tinubu includes any plan to share legislative and local council seats with the All Progressives Congress. In a statement issued on Wednesday by his spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, the governor described the claim, which had spread on social media, as fabricated. He said the Accord Party would field its own candidates for the Senate, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly in 2027, and that he would campaign for them personally.
“What unites the coalition is only the presidential election,” Adeleke said. “We have no deal on the National Assembly and the State Assembly elections. All our candidates will face the electorate, who have the final say.” He also urged other parties to campaign for their own candidates, as he intends to do for Accord.
The clarification follows an unusual political turn in Osun. Adeleke won the governorship in 2022 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, left the party in late 2025 for Accord, and secured a second term on August 15, 2026, defeating the APC candidate, Bola Oyebamiji. Two months later, he was named Osun coordinator of the Tinubu/APC 2027 Presidential Campaign Council, part of a wider coalition that also brought in FCT Minister Nyesom Wike and Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Soludo. The national council was inaugurated at the Presidential Villa on October 14.
The August election figures help explain why the seat question is sensitive. According to the Independent National Electoral Commission, Adeleke polled 511,067 votes against Oyebamiji’s 444,815, a margin of 66,252, while Najeem Salaam of the African Democratic Congress came third with 17,180. Adeleke carried 19 of the state’s 30 local government areas and Oyebamiji won 11. That translates to about 51.9 per cent of valid votes for the governor and 45.2 per cent for the APC, compared with 50.14 per cent and 46.62 per cent in 2022.
Turnout remained modest. INEC data show that 1,010,684 voters were accredited out of 2,339,544 registered, roughly 43 per cent. The results leave the APC, though defeated, with a substantial base across the state heading into the 2027 legislative contests.
Cracks in the new arrangement surfaced before Wednesday’s statement. On October 23, the Osun APC Chairman, Tajudeen Lawal, protested that the party was not consulted before the 344-member state campaign council was put together, alleging the hurried process was designed to cause friction between the party and the governor. Lawal, however, said the APC was not rejecting Adeleke’s coordinating role and was “not opposed to making concessions” for Tinubu’s re-election. Separately, the Osun Inter-Party Advisory Council, backed by 11 parties, disowned individuals listed as its representatives on the council.
Adeleke linked the seat controversy to the long-running dispute over Osun’s local councils. The crisis dates back to APC chairmen elected in October 2022 under former governor Gboyega Oyetola, whose election was nullified by the Federal High Court in Osogbo in November 2022. The state government maintains that Court of Appeal judgments in 2025 affirmed that position, while the APC insists its chairmen remain lawfully in office. Fresh council elections held in February 2025 were won by the PDP, then Adeleke’s party.
The financial cost has been heavy. Federation Account Allocation Committee data indicate that about ₦216 billion due to Osun’s 30 councils was withheld between March 2025 and June 2026, including ₦131.5 billion in 2025 and ₦85.3 billion in the first half of 2026. The Attorney General of the Federation had directed in March 2025 that the funds be held back pending resolution of the dispute. The Supreme Court later dismissed the state’s suit over the funds, holding that there was no evidence the councils had authorised it.
The APC has rejected the governor’s account throughout. Oluwole Oke, Director General of the party’s governorship campaign, said in August that the legally recognised council administration received its allocations every month. Bolaji Akinola, an aide to Oyetola, now Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, has described claims that funds were being withheld as propaganda.
In Wednesday’s statement, Adeleke said negotiations to end the crisis were aimed at protecting the interests of both the APC chairmen and the PDP chairmen and councillors elected in 2025. “All stakeholders agreed that restoring grassroots governance is a condition for our successful campaign ahead of the 2027 elections,” he said. The governor promised that the dispute would be resolved before the end of the year, although the terms of the talks have not been made public.