The last two off-cycle governorship elections before the 2027 general elections both returned incumbents. In Ekiti State, Governor Biodun Oyebanji of the All Progressives Congress (APC) won a second term by a wide margin on 20 June 2026. In Osun State, Governor Ademola Adeleke won a second term on 15 August 2026, this time on the platform of the Accord party after leaving the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Ekiti: a landslide for Oyebanji
Oyebanji, first elected in 2022, faced a fragmented opposition. INEC’s declared results gave him 319,224 votes, far ahead of the PDP’s 40,543 and the African Democratic Congress’s 12,872. He became the first governor of Ekiti since its creation to be re-elected without an interruption, a record for a state known for voting incumbents out.
Ekiti has a long history of difficult elections, including a governor’s impeachment and a state of emergency in 2006, a court-ordered change of government in 2010 and widespread vote buying in 2018. Observers described the 2026 vote as largely peaceful.
Osun: Adeleke holds on
The Osun race was closer and more combative. Adeleke, who had won in 2022 and survived a tribunal ruling against him before the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court restored his victory in 2023, switched to the Accord party ahead of the election. The PDP did not field a candidate.
INEC declared Adeleke the winner on 16 August 2026. He polled 511,067 votes against 444,815 for the APC’s Bola Oyebamiji, a margin of 66,252. Najeem Salaam of the ADC came third with about 17,000 votes. Turnout was about 42% of 2.34 million registered voters, high by recent Nigerian standards.
The campaign was tense. Early in August the EFCC froze an Osun State Government bank account over an alleged ₦11 billion diversion of funds. The Nigerian Bar Association criticised the move, and President Tinubu ordered the account unfrozen.
What they tell us about 2027
- Incumbency still counts. Both governors used their record and control of state structures to win comfortably.
- Party labels are fluid. Adeleke’s win on a smaller party’s platform shows that, in the South-West at least, personal followings can matter more than party brands.
- The APC is not unbeatable. Despite controlling most states after the 2025–26 defections, the governing party lost Osun.
