Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State was re-elected for a second term in the 15 August governorship contest. It was an off-cycle election like no other before it, in the build-up, with its eerie elements of tension, violence and resultant deaths.
Also, while there was a general public scepticism about the integrity of the electoral processes, informed by events in the recent past, a number of stakeholders have pointed out that the administration of the election appeared fairly better on the technological front than INEC’s disastrous outing in the 2023 general elections.
Nevertheless, all the indicated negatives of the polls, conflated in a manner that made the poll prefigure what is likely to occur during the 2027 elections.
The election had initially put some political pressure on President Bola Tinubu due to the action of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in freezing the bank accounts of the Osun State government, due to its declared concerns around the suspicious movement of public funds. Yet, to forestall speculations of federal interference, the President had to order the swift de-freezing of these accounts.
Although the contest involved 15 political parties, it was largely a two-horse race between Governor Ademola, who contested under a new political platform – the Accord Party – following his defection from the PeoplesDemocratic Party (PDP), on whose platform he got into office in 2022, and Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
