The Accord Party Candidate Ademola Adeleke is in front in the Osun governorship race based on early tallies, pulling ahead of APC’s Bola Oyebamiji. However, INEC has not announced any winner yet.
Data compiled by Dataphyte from results posted on INEC’s IReV portal put Adeleke at 408,269 votes, or 52.59 per cent. Oyebamiji followed with 345,171 votes, representing 44.47 per cent, leaving Adeleke ahead by 63,098 votes so far.
ADC candidate Najeem Salaam was a distant third with 13,206 votes, representing 1.70 per cent. The remaining 12 candidates shared the rest of the votes.
The dashboard indicated that results from 3,020 out of 3,763 polling units had been uploaded. That represents about 80.3 per cent of polling units. A total of 791,581 votes were recorded, with 776,275 valid votes and 15,306 rejected votes. Results from 743 polling units were still outstanding.
INEC said the election was held across 3,763 polling units in 30 local government areas. Voting started around 8.30am and ended at 2.30pm, after which counting began at polling units and results were uploaded to IReV.
The commission put the number of registered voters in Osun at 2,339,233, with 1,906,390, or 81.5 per cent, collecting their PVCs ahead of the poll. Officials noted that the number of polling units reported so far does not determine the final outcome, as turnout and voting patterns differ across areas.
Earlier in the day, when results from 2,186 polling units were available, Adeleke had 52.75 per cent to Oyebamiji’s 44.36 per cent. The gap between both candidates has remained around eight percentage points as more results came in.
The race has largely become a contest between Adeleke, Oyebamiji and Salaam, though the margin between the top two and the ADC candidate is wide.
Adeleke won the 2022 election on the PDP platform. He dumped the PDP in December 2025 and joined Accord, where he secured the governorship ticket.
While Adeleke’s lead is significant, it is not enough to conclude the election with almost 20 per cent of polling units yet to be captured. The final result will depend on outstanding polling-unit results, collation and INEC’s official declaration.
Voting was largely peaceful across the state, but there were isolated incidents. In Ejigbo, hoodlums allegedly destroyed election materials and voters fled the area.
The poll was held amid heightened tension. The International Centre for Investigative Reporting had recorded 73 election-related violent incidents in Osun ahead of the election, with fatalities reported in some local government areas.
