Governor Ademola Adeleke has been declared winner of the 2026 Osun State governorship election, securing a fresh four-year mandate after a keenly contested race against the All Progressives Congress. 

The Independent National Electoral Commission announced the result early Sunday at its collation centre in Osogbo, with jubilant supporters immediately spilling into the streets in celebration, dancing and singing victory songs across the state capital.

According to the Returning Officer, Professor Joshua Olalekan Ogunwole, Adeleke polled 511,067 votes to defeat his closest rival, Bola Oyebamiji of the APC, who garnered 444,815 votes, a winning margin of just over 66,000 votes. Najeem Salaam of the African Democratic Congress trailed a distant third with 17,180 votes. Fifteen political parties fielded candidates in the election held on August 15, though the contest was widely seen as a two-horse race between the Accord Party and the APC.

Adeleke’s victory carries particular significance given his political journey over the past year. He contested this cycle under the Accord Party banner after decamping from the Peoples Democratic Party, the platform on which he first won the governorship, in December.

Explaining the defection at the time, the governor said the party’s welfarist philosophy aligned with his focus on citizens’ welfare, adding that government exists primarily to serve the wellbeing of the people.

Adeleke carried 19 of Osun’s 30 local government areas, including Osogbo, Iwo, Ife Central and Ede North, while Oyebamiji won the remaining 11, among them Ilesa East, Irepodun and Isokan. INEC figures show that of the 2,339,544 registered voters, roughly 1.01 million were accredited and just over 985,000 votes were deemed valid, with about 20,700 ballots rejected.

The process was not without friction. Reports from several polling units flagged malfunctioning BVAS accreditation machines, isolated incidents of violence, and allegations of vote-buying, though INEC maintained that the overall exercise met the requirements for a valid declaration. Some residents credited President Bola Tinubu with giving the electoral commission a free hand, including intervening after the state government’s accounts were frozen ahead of the polls. Oyebamiji and the APC retain the option of challenging the outcome at an election petition tribunal, though neither has yet signalled an intention to do so.

With the declaration now final, Adeleke returns to the Bola Ige House for a second consecutive term, extending Accord’s hold on Osun and handing the APC a fresh setback in its push to expand its footprint across the South-West.