The political battle over the outcome of the 2026 Osun State governorship election is far from over, as the All Progressives Congress (APC) has begun reviewing the results while President Bola Tinubu has congratulated Governor Ademola Adeleke on his re-election.
The contrasting developments have added a fresh twist to the aftermath of Saturday’s keenly contested election, with Tinubu acknowledging Adeleke’s victory even as the APC weighs its legal options.
Adeleke, who contested on the platform of the Accord Party, was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after securing 511,067 votes, defeating the APC candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, who polled 444,815 votes. The African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate, Najeem Salaam, finished a distant third with 17,180 votes.
The result gave Adeleke a winning margin of 66,252 votes and saw him win 19 of the state’s 30 local government areas, while Oyebamiji carried 11.
But while the results were still being digested, President Tinubu reached out to Adeleke to congratulate him on his victory.
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According to reports from Adeleke’s camp, the President called the governor at about 2am on Sunday, before INEC formally announced the final result. Tinubu was said to have told Adeleke that the people of Osun had spoken through the ballot and that their mandate should be respected.
Tinubu subsequently issued a formal statement congratulating Adeleke and describing his victory as a reflection of the confidence the people of Osun State had placed in him.
“I called Governor Ademola Adeleke earlier today to congratulate him on his election victory in Osun State. His victory once again confirmed the confidence the people of Osun State have in him,” the President said.
The President urged Adeleke to use his second term to unite the state, regardless of the political choices made by voters during the election.
“Now that he has won, Governor Adeleke must unite the people of Osun State and rally them for growth, stability, and social and economic progress, regardless of the political choices they made at the election,” Tinubu said.
Tinubu also commended the other candidates for their participation, saying the election had strengthened Nigeria’s democratic culture.
But the President’s congratulatory message has not brought the political contest to an immediate close.
The Osun APC said on Sunday that it was examining the results of the election across the state’s 332 wards before determining its next course of action.
The party’s Director of Media and Information, Chief Kola Olabisi, said the APC was consulting its legal team and would explore all available constitutional and legal avenues if its review established grounds for a challenge.
The party stressed that the declaration of a winner by INEC did not extinguish the constitutional right of an aggrieved party to seek judicial redress.
“An election cannot be said to have been concluded without having explored all these constitutionally allowed legal opportunities to correct anomalies observed in the process,” the APC said.
The party therefore stopped short of formally announcing a petition, saying it would first complete its review and obtain professional advice from its lawyers.
The development is particularly significant because the President is the leader of the APC at the national level, while the party’s candidate in Osun has rejected the outcome sufficiently to consider legal action.
Tinubu’s decision to congratulate Adeleke, therefore, places the President’s position squarely on the side of accepting the result announced by INEC, while the Osun APC considers whether there are grounds to challenge it.
For Adeleke, the President’s gesture offers an early political endorsement of the declared outcome and potentially sets the tone for the transition into his second term.
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For the Osun APC, however, the battle may now move from the polling units to the courtroom.
The party has urged its supporters to remain calm and avoid provocation, while appealing to the police to protect its members and supporters.
The immediate question is therefore no longer simply who won Osun. INEC has already declared Adeleke the winner.
The bigger question is whether the APC’s ongoing examination of the results will culminate in a formal election petition.
For now, Tinubu has congratulated Adeleke. The APC is studying the results. And the next major battle could be in the tribunal.
