2026 Osun Guber: No Tense Atmosphere As Voters Head To The Polls Tomorrow…Accord Party Factional Chairman Rocks The Boat With Shocking ‘Endorsement’…APM Candidate Quits, Backs Gov Adeleke

Candidates are making final push for votes as electors in Osun State get ready to make their choice and decide who should be the governor of the State of the Living Spring between November 26, 2026 and November 26, 2030.

Although 15 political parties have fielded candidates and are participating in the election, many have however considered it a two-party race between the APC and Accord Party while ADC is seen as a political party that may spring a surprise.

No one among the guber candidates is a political newcomer; the ADC guber candidate, Hon Najeem Salam was a member of the state House of Assembly for 12 years out of which he served as Speaker for 8 years, APC candidate, Asiwaju Bola Oyebamiji has headed agencies and also served as Commissioner for Finance under Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola while the Accord Party candidate, Asiwaju Ademola Adeleke has served as a member of the senate and he is the incumbent governor.

There are three major structures in the state; the political structure headed by Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the Adeleke political structure and the ‘progressives’ who are members of the APC.

Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, a one-time Minister of Interior, served as governor of Osun State between 2010 and 2018 and he is a politician with a deeply devoted or fanatical following and he has supporters in all the nooks and crannies of the state.

The Adeleke political structure came into being during the second republic through late Pa Raji Adeleke. He was a member of the senate and the political leader of Ede, Ejigbo and other towns in that corridor. As the first civilian governor of Osun State, Pa Raji’s son, late Alhaji Isiaka Adeleke expanded the scope while his younger brother, Asiwaju Ademola Adeleke has sustained the tempo.

Old Oyo State which gave birth to Osun State has been overwhelmingly ‘progressives’ for decades and the party that currently represents that in the reckoning of most people is the APC.

They see APC as the party that represents Action Group, UPN, AD, and the ACN.

The three leading candidates; Najeem, Oyebamiji and Adeleke are from the same senatorial district; Osun West.

While tomorrow’s guber election is seen as a direct competition between APC and Accord Party, it is an election with an unpredictable outcome but what is clear is that no candidate will win by a wide margin and it will be a narrow victory for the eventual winner.

If ADC and Accord Party had agreed to work together there may have been an easily ascertainable outcome but sources told Team@orientactual.com that nothing like that was under consideration as at Thursday night.

It was learned that this was kept off table because no one could introduce such a matter or table it before the ADC National Secretary, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.

Leaders of Aregbesola group felt incensed that the Accord Party leaders failed to keep past promises including appointive positions for members of the political structure at the local government level.

It is however not impossible that the state Commissioner for Information, Hon Kolapo Alimi, who was an Aregbesola’s footsoldier, will make a successful last-minute move.

In the meanwhile, APC held the grand finale of its campaign rally in Osogbo on Thursday and one of the highlights of the event was the declaration of support for Asiwaju Bola Oyebamiji’s candidacy by the factional National Chairman of Accord Party, Prof. Christopher Imumole.

‘As the National Chairman of Accord Party, we have withdrawn our support for Ademola Adeleke and today, we declare our support for Ambo (Oyebamiji).  On Saturday, all Accord members in Osun State should go to the polling stations and vote for Ambo’ he said.

Reacting to this development, The Imole Campaign Council (TICC)  in a statement made available to Team@orientactualmags.com by Rep Bamidele Salam, who is the Chairman of the Media and Publicity Committee, called it ‘fake endorsement’ while describing it as an admittance of the unpopularity of Osun APC and the party’s guber  candidate, Asiwaju Bola Oyebamiji. 

‘By recognizing the purported defection of one Christopher Imumolen, who has been parading himself as the factional National Chairman of the Accord, Prof. Yilwatda has inadvertently lent credence to concerns that the APC is behind efforts to factionalize opposition political parties across the country, including the Accord Party’ the campaign organization submitted while adding that ‘it is embarrassing that after mobilizing no fewer than 34 APC governors to Osun State for a mega rally, the purported endorsement of an individual unknown to the authentic Accord family in Osun and across Nigeria is the major highlight of the rally’.

Another significant development on Thursday was the announcement of the decision to back out of the 2026 guber race by the APM  guber candidate, Mr Adebayo Adewale who also made declaration of support for Governor Ademola Adeleke’s candidacy.

He noted that he has done this ‘after deep reflection and extensive consultation with party leaders  supporters and the stakeholders’ adding that ‘I have decided to withdraw from the guber race and this decision is not born out of pressure or personal interest, it is a conscious choice to place the interest of Osun  above personal ambition’.

He also gave reasons for declaring support for Governor Adeleke’s re-election bid.

 ‘Having carefully assessed the situation, I believe Governor Ademola Adeleke deserves another term to consolidate the progress of his administration’ he said.

 Team@orientactualmags.com visited some parts of Ilesa and Osogbo to assess the situation on Thursday, it was a calm, relaxed, and stress-free environment and there was no worry or fear in the air.

There was security presence in Osogbo, the police, DSS and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) deployed law enforcement officers to patrol the streets and a heightened security presence in the state capital and other major cities is expected today.

Sources told our reporter that Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) officers from Lagos and other states have arrived in Osogbo since Monday and they began to patrol the streets of Osogbo at 12 am on Friday while the tempo of activities will increase beginning from 8 am this morning.

In Ilesa, it was an almost absent security presence despite being one of the hotspot areas , from Ijebu jesa to Methodist High School which is a road shared by three local governments, there was no security checkpoints ditto Ilesa East through Obokun Avenue to Imo dual carriage way and from there to International Breweries.

Despite the alarm raised in respect of fears of politically motivated arrests, no Accord Party bigwig in the state had been arrested as at Friday morning.

Hon. Popoola Alaba, the Ijesha South Accord Party reps candidate, who was arrested by the police on July 25, 2026, will not be playing any role in the election because he is still behind bars.

He had allegedly taken PVCs away at gunpoint and he may face charges.

ADC in a statement issued on Wednesday, by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi had also alleged that the federal government was planning to arrest Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola but nothing of such had happened as at Friday morning.

 ‘The African Democratic Congress has received credible reports of plans to arrest our National Secretary, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, in the days leading to Saturday’s Osun State election’ the statement said.

It is an indisputable fact that APC and Accord Party have the most money, voters, and power and the two parties have reportedly begun to distribute money to the electors.

The activity increased on Thursday and sources told our reporter that they have opted for ‘prepaid arrangement’ because security agents may make vote buying impracticable and impossible on the Election Day.

While APC has made N15,000 available to each of the electors, that of Accord Party is N10, 000.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)  also on Thursday once again, assured residents of Osun State that it will conduct a free, fair, credible, transparent and inclusive guber election tomorrow.

A statement issued by the National Commissioner / Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr  Mohammed Kudu Haruna noted that out of the  2,339,233 people who have gotten on the electoral register in the state, only 1,906,390  people collected their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) which represents 81.50 per cent-Team@orientactualmags.com  Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08035023079,  08059100286, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com.  Thank you