By Nwafor Sunday, Online News Editor
Governor Ademola Adeleke’s victory in the 2026 Osun State governorship election was driven by a combination of strong performances in his traditional strongholds, decisive victories in key local government areas and an ability to accumulate large vote margins that the All Progressives Congress (APC) could not overturn.
The results from the 30 local government areas collated by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) showed Adeleke, who contested on the platform of the Accord Party, defeating the APC candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, in 19 local government areas, while the APC won 11.
The African Democratic Congress (ADC), whose candidate was Najeem Salaam, finished a distant third in the three-party contest.
The final figures for the three leading parties showed Accord polling 511,067 votes, against 444,815 votes for APC, while ADC recorded 17,180 votes.
The figures gave Adeleke a 66,252-vote lead over his closest challenger.
But beyond the numbers, Adeleke’s victory also reflected the confidence with which he entered the contest, having repeatedly dismissed concerns over the perceived political weight behind the APC campaign.
Days before the election, the governor described himself as a “bulldozer”, declaring that he was not intimidated by what he characterised as federal might or the support of some governors for his opponent.
‘I am a bulldozer’
Speaking on Tuesday at the Arise Townhall Meeting, Adeleke said he was prepared to confront the political machinery backing the APC candidate.
He said he was not afraid of the governors supporting Oyebamiji and challenged them to bring their full political weight into the contest.
“I am a bulldozer. I am talk and do. I am not afraid of federal might and governors backing the APC candidate. If they like, they should bring all the governors,” Adeleke said.
The declaration became a defining statement of the governor’s campaign as he sought to convince voters that the election would ultimately be decided by the people of Osun rather than the influence of political heavyweights outside the state.
The results suggest that Adeleke was able to translate that confidence into a strong electoral performance.
The mathematics of Adeleke’s victory
The most revealing feature of the election was not simply the number of local governments won by each candidate, but the size of the margins recorded in their respective strongholds.
Adeleke won 19 LGAs, while Oyebamiji carried 11.
But some of Adeleke’s victories were particularly large, creating a substantial cushion that APC struggled to erase with its own victories.
The clearest example came from the Ede axis.
Ede delivered a huge advantage
In Ede-North, Accord scored 35,427 votes, while APC recorded 10,283.
That gave Adeleke a margin of 25,144 votes in one local government.
The result in Ede-South was equally significant.
Accord polled 26,188 votes, compared with APC’s 6,219, giving the governor another 19,969-vote advantage.
Combined, the two Ede councils gave Accord 61,615 votes, against APC’s 16,502.
That amounted to a 45,113-vote net advantage for Adeleke from just two LGAs.
It was a margin that would prove difficult for APC to neutralise elsewhere.
Osogbo adds to Adeleke’s advantage
The state capital also contributed significantly to Adeleke’s performance.
In Osogbo Local Government Area, Accord secured 36,480 votes, while APC polled 30,474.
Adeleke therefore won the council by 6,006 votes.
The ADC scored 1,503 votes in Osogbo, its strongest performance among the 30 LGAs covered by the supplied results.
Osogbo was important not only because of its political significance but also because the result demonstrated Adeleke’s ability to remain competitive in an urban centre where APC also had considerable support.
Adeleke dominates the Ife axis
The Ife area was another important component of the governor’s victory.
Accord won Ife-East, polling 27,201 votes against APC’s 18,600, a margin of 8,601 votes.
In Ife-Central, Adeleke secured 21,171 votes, while APC recorded 15,913, giving Accord a further 5,258-vote advantage.
Accord also won Ife-North, where it scored 13,879 votes against APC’s 9,613, a margin of 4,266 votes.
APC, however, secured Ife-South, polling 14,678 votes against Accord’s 13,507, a margin of 1,171 votes.
Overall, the four Ife councils produced 75,758 votes for Accord and 58,804 for APC, giving Adeleke a combined advantage of 16,954 votes.
Egbedore, Iwo and Oriade strengthen the lead
Adeleke’s victory was not confined to Ede, Osogbo and Ife.
In Egbedore, Accord scored 19,278 votes, against APC’s 11,194, producing a margin of 8,084 votes.
In Iwo, Adeleke polled 27,085 votes, while Oyebamiji recorded 19,660, giving Accord a margin of 7,425 votes.
The governor also carried Oriade, where Accord secured 21,343 votes, compared with APC’s 14,863 — a difference of 6,480 votes.
These victories helped Adeleke accumulate the substantial overall lead that emerged from the collation.
APC remained a formidable challenger
Despite losing the election, the results showed that APC remained a major political force in Osun.
Oyebamiji won 11 of the 30 LGAs and recorded some impressive margins.
His strongest performance in the supplied results came from Irewole, where APC polled 29,972 votes, against Accord’s 10,934.
That gave APC a 19,038-vote advantage in the local government.
APC also won Boripe, with 19,963 votes against Accord’s 12,448, a margin of 7,515 votes.
It further secured victories in Olorunda, Ilesa-East, Ife-South, Ola-Oluwa, Isokan, Obokun, Atakumosa-West and Atakumosa-East.
But the challenge for APC was the distribution and size of those victories.
The party won several LGAs, but its combined margins were not enough to offset the much larger margins accumulated by Adeleke in his strongest areas.
Adeleke won big where it mattered
The 2026 election therefore provides an interesting lesson in electoral mathematics.
A candidate does not necessarily need to win every local government to secure a statewide victory.
What matters is the aggregate vote total.
Adeleke’s 19 victories produced 511,067 votes, while APC’s 11 winning LGAs contributed to an overall total of 444,815 votes.
The difference was 66,252 votes.
The Ede results alone accounted for a substantial portion of that overall margin.
This explains why APC’s victories in several councils, including Irewole and Boripe, were insufficient to overturn Adeleke’s advantage.
The ADC factor
The ADC did not come close to challenging either Accord or APC for overall victory, but its performance remains relevant to the analysis.
The party polled 17,180 votes across the 30 LGAs.
Its strongest showing among the supplied results came in Ejigbo, where it scored 5,053 votes.
It also recorded 1,503 in Osogbo, 935 in Ife-East, 747 in Ife-Central, and 673 each in Ifedayo and Ilesa-West.
In most other LGAs, however, its votes were significantly lower.
The ADC therefore emerged as a third force in pockets of the state but did not acquire enough support to seriously threaten the two leading candidates.
A two-party contest despite 13 candidates
Thirteen candidates contested the governorship election, but the results demonstrated the dominance of the two leading parties.
Yet, the election quickly became a contest dominated by Accord and APC.
The combined Accord and APC figures stood at 955,882 votes, compared with 17,180 votes recorded by ADC.
That concentration of votes underscored the strength of the two principal political camps.
Adeleke’s geographical spread
Another important factor in the election was the geographical spread of Adeleke’s victories.
His 19 LGAs were spread across different parts of the state.
He won Ede-North, Ede-South, Osogbo, Ife-Central, Ife-East, Ila, Boluwaduro, Irepodun, Ayedire, Ejigbo, Ayedaade, Ifelodun, Ife-North, Ilesa-West, Egbedore, Orolu, Oriade, Ifedayo, Odo-Otin and Iwo, based on the results supplied.
This spread gave his campaign a broad electoral base.
Rather than depending exclusively on one bloc, Adeleke combined overwhelming support in some councils with competitive performances across others.
APC’s strongholds could not compensate
Oyebamiji’s 11 victories showed that APC had considerable support across Osun.
But the party’s biggest problem was that some of its strongest victories came in areas where Accord’s losses were relatively manageable, while Adeleke was simultaneously building enormous advantages elsewhere.
For example, APC’s 19,038-vote advantage in Irewole was significant.
But Adeleke’s 45,113-vote combined advantage in Ede-North and Ede-South alone was more than twice the Irewole margin.
That is the central arithmetic behind the election.
APC won some areas decisively.
Adeleke won some areas even more decisively.
And the latter proved more consequential when all the votes were aggregated.
The significance of Ede
The Ede results deserve particular attention because they illustrate the scale of the governor’s political strength.
Adeleke did not merely win Ede-North and Ede-South.
He dominated them.
In Ede-North, Accord secured more than three times APC’s vote.
In Ede-South, it secured more than four times the APC vote.
Together, the two councils generated a margin of 45,113 votes.
In a contest ultimately decided by a statewide difference of 66,252 votes, the importance of those two local governments cannot be overstated.
From “bulldozer” claim to ballot-box numbers
Before the election, Adeleke’s “bulldozer” declaration was essentially a political challenge: a statement that the presence of federal power and governors backing his opponent would not determine the outcome in Osun.
The results provide the numerical context for that claim.
His campaign succeeded in producing overwhelming margins in areas such as Ede-North and Ede-South, while maintaining enough support in other parts of the state to win 19 LGAs.
The APC, despite its institutional and political strength, could not translate its 11 local government victories into enough votes to close the statewide gap.
In that sense, the election became a test not merely of political influence but of how effectively each side converted its support into actual votes.
And on the figures available, Adeleke’s side did that more effectively.
The final picture
The 2026 Osun governorship election was ultimately a contest between two dominant political structures.
APC demonstrated that it remained a formidable force, winning 11 LGAs and posting large margins in some of them.
But Adeleke’s Accord Party carried 19 LGAs and, more importantly, produced sufficiently large margins in key councils to establish a lead that APC could not overcome.
The final figures tell the story:
Accord — 511,067 votes
APC — 444,815 votes
ADC — 17,180 votes
Accord’s lead over APC — 66,252 votes
Adeleke’s victory was therefore not simply about winning 19 local governments against APC’s 11.
It was about where he won, how many votes he accumulated there and the size of the margins he created.
Ede-North and Ede-South provided the biggest cushion. Osogbo strengthened the position. The Ife axis broadened the advantage, while victories in Egbedore, Iwo, Oriade and other councils prevented APC from closing the gap.
Before the election, Adeleke had presented himself as a “bulldozer”, insisting that he was not intimidated by federal might or the governors backing his opponent.
After the votes were counted, the numbers showed that the governor had indeed built a formidable electoral advantage.
Adeleke won 19 LGAs, polled 511,067 votes and defeated APC by 66,252 votes — putting him on course for a second term in Osun State.
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