•Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State
A youth group, Osun Progressive Youth (O-SPY), today called on President Bola Tinubu and the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to reject any defection move by Governor Ademola Adeleke into the party, dismissing claims that he enjoys massive support in Osun State ahead of the 2026 governorship election.
The group argued that the APC’s support base in the state has grown stronger since Adeleke assumed office in 2022 due to what they described as his unimpressive governance style, which has weakened the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), reports The Nation.
In a statement issued by its coordinator, Tunmise Ajiboye, and made available to newsmen, the group recalled that the PDP has continued to lose key members, including former aides and loyalists of ex-Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola, to the APC since 2022.
“Following insinuations that Adeleke is attempting to join APC, we want to state it clearly that Osun people are ready to reject both Adeleke and PDP in 2026. APC has never lost any of its members to PDP, rather, more members of the ruling party, PDP joined our party since 2022.
“Ex-National Deputy Chairman of PDP, Chief Shuiab Oyedokun, Prince Dotun Babayemi(Strong PDP from Osun West), ex-SSG to Oyinlola, Kazeem Adio, ex-Chief of Staff of Oyinlola, Peter Babalola, PDP Rep aspirant, Kayode Oduooye and many more dumped Adeleke for APC.
“The claim that Adeleke dynasty dictate what happen in Osun political structure is a lie. We want to bring the attention of President Tinubu to the fact that Osun is for APC and he should not be deceived by Adeleke’s acclaimed support base as a negotiation bait into APC.”
He added: “We learnt that some people had been lying about the political power of the Adeleke family in Ede and Osun State at large, but this is a lie, Chief Bisi Akande defeated Adeleke’s elder brother, Isiaka with wide margin in 1999. He lost Senate seat to Fajimi.
“Subsequently, he lost party guber primary to Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola in 2002 after he was compensated with a Senate ticket in 2007. In 2011, as a sitting senator, the late Isiaka Adeleke contested against Senator Mudasiru Hussein, but was defeated by a wide margin.
“In 2014, Senator Otunba Iyiola Omisore defeated the late Isiaka Adeleke in the PDP primary, prompting his defection to the APC, where Aregbesola compensated him with a Senate ticket, there more history.”
The group expressed fear that if Adeleke defects to APC and given guber ticket, he may lose to any candidate the ADC presents— because the PDP is already dead.
