Osun Race: Fadahunsi Faces Backlash Over Campaign Remarks
A war of words over a viral campaign video has plunged Osun State’s already tense governorship race into deeper controversy, just days before residents head to the polls on Saturday, August 15, 2026, in one of the most closely watched off cycle elections in Nigeria’s recent political history.
At the centre of the storm is Senator Francis Fadahunsi, representing Osun East Senatorial District, whose remarks at a rally of All Progressives Congress (APC) supporters in Ilesa were captured on video and shared widely on social media, drawing sharp condemnation from Governor Ademola Adeleke, presidential candidate Peter Obi, and civil society groups. Musician David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, a native of Osun State, was among those who amplified the clip online, providing an English translation that intensified public reaction.
Different outlets have reported slightly varying transcriptions and translations of the senator’s Yoruba remarks, a discrepancy that reflects the contested nature of the footage rather than a single agreed record of what was said. Some reports quote him urging supporters to confront Accord Party members “till the election day.” Others attribute to him a broader instruction that supporters should act against Accord members and, where such members could not be found, their families. Fadahunsi has personally disputed the most inflammatory version, stating that the clip circulated online “was deliberately edited to distort what I actually said.”
His media office in Osogbo subsequently issued a clarification titled “Kill Osun Accord with Votes, Not Violence, Senator Fadahunsi Tells APC,” describing the remark as a call for supporters to reject the Accord Party at the ballot box “through lawful, peaceful and democratic means.” The statement insisted the comment was “purely political and metaphorical” and maintained that the senator had never advocated violence against any political group.
That explanation has not quieted the backlash. Governor Adeleke, addressing journalists at an emergency press briefing at the Government House in Osogbo, described the matter as extending beyond ordinary campaign rhetoric, saying it amounted to a security concern requiring the attention of the Presidency through the National Security Adviser. He formally asked Inspector General of Police, Olatunji Disu, to order Fadahunsi’s arrest and prosecution, and called on the Department of State Services to investigate the senator over the alleged incitement. Adeleke’s campaign organisation, the Imole Campaign Council, separately demanded the same action, describing the remarks as “despicable.”
The governor used the same briefing to raise a parallel allegation, claiming that a police directive had been issued for the arrest of Accord Party leaders across the state, with instructions that detainees be transferred to Abuja and held until after the election. He said more than 60 party leaders remained in what he called unlawful detention without formal charges, and appealed to the police hierarchy to treat the reported directive as unlawful if confirmed.
Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress and a former Anambra State governor, weighed in through a statement on his verified social media account, describing Fadahunsi’s rhetoric as threat laden and capable of escalating tensions. He called on the senator to retract the remarks and extend an apology to the people of Osun State, while urging all political actors in the state to exercise restraint as the election approaches.
The controversy unfolds against the backdrop of an unusual political realignment. Governor Adeleke, who defeated then incumbent Gboyega Oyetola in the July 2022 governorship election by a margin of roughly 28,000 votes, winning 17 of the state’s 30 local government areas on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, defected to the Accord Party in December 2025 and emerged as its sole governorship candidate at a primary in Osogbo. That decision marks the first time in recent Osun history that a sitting governor is seeking re-election under a different party from the one that brought him to office, and it has left both the PDP and the Labour Party, both of which fielded candidates in 2022, absent from this year’s ballot.
Fourteen political parties and candidates have been cleared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to contest Saturday’s election, though the race has narrowed in public attention to three frontrunners, Adeleke of the Accord Party, Bola Oyebamiji of the APC, a former state Commissioner for Finance, and Najeem Salam of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
The Fadahunsi episode is the latest flashpoint in a campaign already marked by mutual allegations of violence and institutional interference. In July, Adeleke had urged a visiting British Government delegation, led by Senior Political Adviser Wale Adebajo, to consider visa restrictions and economic sanctions against Minister of Marine and Blue Economy Gboyega Oyetola, Oyebamiji, Fadahunsi and other APC figures, whom he accused of encouraging violence through allies, resulting in what he described as killings and gun attacks in the state. The Osun APC rejected the allegation, insisting none of its leaders had been indicted by any court or inquiry.
Separately, a coalition of civil society groups and former student leaders petitioned the United States Embassy, the British High Commission, the European Union Delegation and United Nations offices in Abuja, urging international monitoring of the poll and highlighting concerns over the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s earlier freezing of Osun State Government accounts, a move the Inter Party Advisory Council described as “politically motivated.”
INEC has confirmed that 2,339,233 voters are registered across the state’s 3,763 polling units, a figure that rose from roughly 1.95 million recorded in July following the commission’s Continuous Voter Registration exercise. A total of 3,763 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System devices, with 664 additional units held in reserve, will be deployed to accredit voters and upload results directly to INEC’s IReV portal. The commission has also identified 385 flashpoints and 200 difficult terrain locations across the state, information it says has been shared with security agencies.
Security preparations for the poll include the deployment of 25,310 personnel, comprising roughly 15,000 police officers, 10,210 personnel from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and about 100 operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, alongside soldiers and armoured personnel carriers stationed at INEC’s Osogbo headquarters. INEC has also disclosed plans to draw ad hoc staff from a pool of more than 30,000 members of the National Youth Service Corps.
With sensitive materials already secured in the state ahead of Saturday’s vote, the unresolved dispute over Fadahunsi’s remarks, and the competing allegations of police bias and unlawful detentions, will test how far Nigeria’s electoral and security institutions can maintain neutrality in a contest that both major camps have already framed as a referendum on the credibility of the country’s electoral process ahead of 2027.