ABUJA, Nigeria — The political temperature in Osun State rose again on Sunday as the All Progressives Congress (APC) refused to draw the curtain on the 2026 governorship election, signalling that Governor Ademola Adeleke’s re-election may face a legal challenge.
The APC said it is scrutinising the results from across the state before deciding whether to proceed to court, setting the stage for a potentially prolonged post-election battle after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Adeleke of the Accord Party the winner.
The development is significant because the APC has stopped short of formally rejecting the declared result or announcing that it has filed an election petition. Instead, the party says its lawyers are examining the process and that it will use every constitutional avenue available should its review establish grounds for litigation.
In a statement issued in Osogbo on Sunday, APC Director of Media and Information Kola Olabisi said the party was studying the results recorded in each of Osun’s 332 wards.
“We are not unaware of the fact that election is a process which begins at the registration of the voters through the primary election to the election proper, which extends to the tribunal, the Appeal Court and terminates at the Supreme Court,” Olabisi said.
“An election cannot be said to have been concluded without having explored all these constitutionally allowed legal opportunities to enrich the nation’s jurisprudence as enshrined in the Electoral Act 2026 as amended,” he added.
That statement provides the clearest indication yet that the APC is unwilling to accept the political verdict without first testing the underlying electoral record.
Adeleke wins, but margin is substantial
INEC declared Adeleke the winner after the completion of collation from all 30 Local Government Areas.
According to the final figures, Adeleke polled 511,067 votes, while APC candidate Bola Oyebamiji scored 444,815 votes. African Democratic Congress candidate Najeem Salaam came a distant third with 17,180 votes.
The margin between Adeleke and Oyebamiji was therefore 66,252 votes.
INEC said 2,339,544 voters were registered, while 1,010,684 were accredited. A total of 1,005,800 votes were cast, comprising 985,079 valid votes and 20,721 rejected ballots.
Adeleke won in 19 of Osun’s 30 LGAs, while Oyebamiji carried 11.
On the face of the figures, the incumbent enters the post-election period with a sizeable numerical advantage. Adeleke secured about 51.9 per cent of valid votes, compared with roughly 45.2 per cent for Oyebamiji.
That does not, however, close the legal door.
Under Nigeria’s electoral framework, a candidate or participating political party has a recognised right to challenge an election. Section 137 of the Electoral Act 2026 expressly allows a candidate or political party that participated in an election to present an election petition. Section 138 provides that an election may be questioned on grounds including corrupt practices or non-compliance with the Act, or where the returned candidate was not duly elected by a majority of lawful votes.
The law also makes clear that not every technical breach is sufficient to overturn an election.
Section 139 provides that an election should not be invalidated merely because of non-compliance where the tribunal is satisfied that the election was substantially conducted in accordance with the law and that the irregularity did not substantially affect the result.
That provision could become one of the most important battlegrounds if the APC eventually files.
What the APC must prove in court
The APC’s present language is carefully framed.
The party has not yet publicly identified a definitive list of polling units whose results it wants cancelled. It has not, as at Sunday, produced a comprehensive forensic comparison of its own agents’ result sheets with INEC’s declared figures. Nor has it formally announced the filing of a petition.
Instead, it says it is examining the election and consulting lawyers.
That distinction matters.
A political party can allege irregularities, but an election petition requires facts, pleadings and evidence capable of surviving judicial scrutiny.
The Electoral Act 2026 provides that a petition must clearly state the facts relied upon, the grounds of challenge and the relief sought. It must also be accompanied by a list of witnesses, written statements on oath and the documents intended to be relied upon.
The APC’s strongest potential legal route would therefore be to establish, polling unit by polling unit or across sufficiently material areas, that the alleged irregularities were not merely isolated violations but were serious enough to affect the lawful outcome.
This is where the coming days could become crucial.
Allegations of vote-buying and violence provide possible ammunition
The APC is not entering the post-election contest in an evidential vacuum.
Several organisations and electoral stakeholders had raised concerns before, during and immediately after the Osun poll over vote-buying, intimidation, violence and other alleged electoral offences.
Before the election, INEC itself warned about the growing threat of vote-buying and urged journalists and other stakeholders to document suspected incidents in sufficient detail to support prosecution.
Yiaga Africa had also identified security concerns and evolving forms of voter inducement as risks to the credibility of the election. Its pre-election monitoring recorded allegations of cash and material inducements and warned that political violence could undermine confidence in the process.
After the election, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) raised more serious concerns, asking INEC, the EFCC and the ICPC to investigate allegations of vote-buying, financial inducement, violence, voter intimidation and other electoral offences.
SERAP said preliminary reports attributed to the EU Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria Election Observation Hub had recorded 323 electoral offences and irregularities across 726 polling units observed as of midday on election day. The reported incidents included alleged vote trading, inducement of officials, voter obstruction, campaigning at polling units, voter impersonation, multiple voting, official misconduct and security incidents.
SERAP said:
“The legitimacy and credibility of the Osun State election result ultimately depend upon whether voters were genuinely able to freely exercise their right to participation and political choice.”
The organisation also called for preservation and examination of banking records, mobile-money data, telecommunications information, CCTV footage and polling-unit documentation that could assist investigations.
These allegations do not establish that Adeleke’s victory was unlawfully obtained. They are allegations requiring independent verification.
But from a legal perspective, their significance is obvious: credible documentary or witness evidence linking proven electoral offences to affected votes could form part of a petition.
The mathematics of the legal fight
The APC faces a difficult calculation.
Adeleke’s 66,252-vote lead is large enough that the opposition would have to do considerably more than identify scattered irregularities.
To alter the outcome, the APC would need to demonstrate that enough unlawful votes should be excluded, or that enough lawful votes were wrongly suppressed or misallocated, to materially change the final result.
The Electoral Act deliberately raises that evidential threshold by stating that non-compliance must have substantially affected the election before it can justify invalidation.
That does not make an APC challenge impossible. It means the strength of the case will depend less on the number of allegations and more on the quality of the evidence connecting those allegations to the final tally.
This is also why the party’s decision to examine results from all 332 wards is strategically important.
The immediate post-election contest is likely to revolve around three sets of documents: polling-unit result sheets, party agents’ records and INEC’s official collation records.
Any serious court action would be expected to reconcile those records and identify where, when and how the disputed figures arose.
APC appeals for calm amid allegations of harassment
While keeping the legal option open, the APC appealed to its supporters to avoid confrontation.
Olabisi urged party members to remain calm and continue with their normal activities rather than respond to alleged provocations by supporters of the ruling party.
“As a result of the foregoing, we are imploring our ever-loyal members and supporters to remain cool and calm while they carry on with their businesses and refuse to respond to any provocative action or inaction from any members of the ruling party across the state,” the APC said.
The party also appealed to the Nigeria Police Force to protect its members and supporters, alleging that some APC supporters were being subjected to unnecessary harassment by members of the ruling party.
Those allegations, like the wider electoral claims, require verification.
But they underline a broader security concern: an election that ends peacefully at the polling booth can still become dangerous when competing political camps begin contesting the legitimacy of the result.
Osun had already experienced significant political-security tensions in the build-up to the vote. Police had arrested suspected cultists and political thugs in earlier security operations, while political parties and civil society organisations repeatedly raised concerns over violence, intimidation and institutional neutrality.
A legal route is open — but time is already running
The APC’s reference to the tribunal, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court is not merely political rhetoric.
Nigeria’s Constitution provides for a Governorship Election Tribunal in each state with original jurisdiction over questions concerning whether a person has been validly elected governor or deputy governor. Section 285(5) of the Constitution requires an election petition to be filed within 21 days after declaration of the result.
The Electoral Act 2026 further regulates the petition process, including documentary requirements, service, pre-hearing sessions and appeals. It also permits orders for inspection of electoral documents where such inspection is relevant to instituting, maintaining or defending an election petition.
That means the APC cannot remain in review mode indefinitely.
If its lawyers conclude that there is a viable case, the party and its candidate will have to transform political complaints into a properly documented legal case within the constitutional timeframe.
And that is where the difference between a political protest and an election petition becomes stark.
A protest can say the election was unfair.
A petition must show where, how, under which law and with what measurable electoral consequence the alleged wrongdoing occurred.
The bigger political meaning
The Osun contest has implications beyond the immediate struggle between Adeleke and Oyebamiji.
The election is one of the major electoral tests ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 general elections. The way the post-election dispute is handled will therefore be watched closely by political parties, civil society groups, security agencies and election observers.
Adeleke has secured the official declaration. The APC has secured the right to scrutinise it.
Those are not the same thing.
For now, the constitutional position is straightforward: Adeleke remains the declared winner unless an election petition and subsequent appeals produce a different legal outcome.
The political question, however, is more fluid.
Will the APC find evidence capable of overturning a 66,252-vote margin?
Will allegations of vote-buying and other offences translate into admissible evidence?
Will the party ultimately file a petition, or will its legal review conclude that the available evidence does not meet the statutory threshold?
Those questions remain unanswered.
What is clear is that Osun’s 2026 governorship election has entered a second contest — one fought not at polling units, but through documents, witness statements, result sheets, forensic evidence and courtroom arguments.
Olabisi captured the APC’s current position when he said the party would “not hesitate without further delay to explore the window allowed by the extant Electoral Act after due consultation with the team of our lawyers based on their professional advice.”
And the party’s final warning was unmistakable:
“The current situation in the political history of the state is a passing phase which will soon become part of history, as justice shall be done accordingly.”
For Osun, the ballots may have been counted. But the legal battle — if the APC decides to activate it, may only just be beginning.
Follow us on our broadcast channels today!
- WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VawZ8TbDDmFT1a1Syg46
- Telegram: https://t.me/atlanticpostchannel
- Facebook: https://www.messenger.com/channel/atlanticpostng
