-
Says Governor’s Defeat by 2026 Sacrosanct
- Safiu Kehinde
The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has charged the state governor, Ademola Adeleke, to commence preparing of his handover note, stressing that no magic wand can save him from the impending defeat at the 2026 Governorship election.
This is coming under the heels of Adeleke’s screening by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the gubernatorial election.
NPO Reported that the governor was screened by the PDP’s National Convention Screening Committee (NCOC) on Thursday in Maitama, Abuja.
Following the screening, Adeleke expressed confidence about his re-election bid at the 2026 gubernatorial election.
He cited his victory against his predecessor, Gboyega Oyetola, as prove that he has the people’s support coupled with the works his administration has done in the state.
“I’m so confident about winning. If I can defeat an incumbent and now, I’m a governor and with what we have achieved in less than two years, I’m so confident.
“If you are not performing well, you will be scared. When you have your people behind you, you don’t have to fear.” The governor said.
Reacting to the development, the Osun APC, in a statement issued by its Director of Media and Information, Kola Olabisi, described the screening as a mere smokescreen to save Adeleke from the attendant embarrassment his rejection by the APC.
Olabisi alleged that Adeleke had struggled multiple times in the last five months to defect to the APC, fearing that his chances of winning his re-election were slim.
He claimed that the party’s leadership had turned Adeleke down, labelling him an unmarketable governor who would court hatred and electoral misfortune for the party on account of his government’s poor policy formulation and implementation, lack of transparency, endemic corruption, nepotism and cronyism.
The Osun APC spokesperson further alleged that the governor was found last week loitering around Aso Villa, begging, alongside his elder brother, Dr Deji Adeleke, for a soft-landing to join the APC.
It accused Adeleke of running a shallow and mediocre government with only focus on himself and his members of his cabinet having wasted over N60 billion on the Governor’s Office in 35 months.
The APC also accused the PDP-led administration of duping 32,000 struggling citizens of their hard-earned money under a pretext of wanting to recruit them as schoolteachers.
Adeleke was equally accused of failing to fund education, a development which has forced management of virtually all the tertiary institutions in the state to install a cut-throat and arbitrary fee regime to shore up the meagre resources available to them.
Meanwhile, Olabisi held that the governor has unanimously be screened out by Osun people.
He declared Adeleke’s defeat in 2026 as sacrosanct.
“Even though the distraught Adeleke had been screened by a faction of his party leadership to contest the 2026 governorship election, we, as a party, are not unaware of the fact that the entire Osun State people have unanimously screened out the governor based on his unenviable three-year-old administration which is riddled with misgovernance, misplaced priorities, vengeance, wastage of resources and other numerous ills.
“We pity the governor as he is aware of where the shoes are pinching him having regard that his fruitless efforts to defect into the opposition APC party which he has been keeping away from his followers will land a heavy blow on his re-election bid.
“One thing that is sacrosanct is that there is no political party under which he may be contesting the next year’s governorship election that he would not be defeated by our party.
“The major problem that Governor Adeleke is contending with is the fear of the array of the super-qualified governorship aspirants in our party who are all individually capable of sending the embattled governor back to Atlanta in the United States or wherever he might have come from.
“The 2026 governorship election is a contest for Adeleke and his rudderless and sanguinary party to lose considering the poor and unfriendly public perception on their government.” Olabisi wrote.