Osun, carved out of Oyo in 1991, is home to Osogbo, Ile-Ife and Ilesa, and to some of the most fiercely contested elections in the South-West. It has voted off-cycle since 2010, when a court ruling put a new governor in office mid-term, and its last four governorship elections have all been decided either very narrowly or in court.
1999 and 2003: Akande loses to Oyinlola
Adebisi Akande, a former deputy governor of the old Oyo State, won the January 1999 election for the Alliance for Democracy with 295,557 votes. In April 2003 the PDP’s Olagunsoye Oyinlola, a retired brigadier-general and former military administrator of Lagos, beat him by 493,509 votes to 237,041. Akande later became the first national chairman of the APC.
2007 to 2010: Aregbesola wins in court
Oyinlola was declared re-elected in April 2007 with 426,669 votes against 240,722 for Rauf Aregbesola, a former Lagos works commissioner running for the Action Congress. Aregbesola challenged the result for more than three years. On 26 November 2010 the Court of Appeal in Ibadan ruled that he had won the election, and he was sworn in the next day. Because his four-year term ran from that date, Osun has voted off-cycle ever since.
2014: a second term
Aregbesola, now in the APC, was re-elected on 9 August 2014 with 394,684 votes (56.7%) against 292,747 for the PDP’s Iyiola Omisore, a former deputy governor and senator. Days before the vote, Oyinlola himself joined the APC.
2018: 482 votes after a rerun
The 2018 race to succeed Aregbesola set his former chief of staff, Gboyega Oyetola of the APC, against Ademola Adeleke, a senator and brother of a former governor, running for the PDP. After the vote on 22 September Adeleke led by 353 votes, but INEC declared the election inconclusive because more votes had been cancelled in seven polling units. In the rerun on 27 September Oyetola overtook him and was declared the winner with 255,505 votes to Adeleke’s 255,023, a margin of 482. Omisore, now in the SDP, came third with 128,053. Observers criticised the conduct of the rerun, but Oyetola’s victory was upheld by the Supreme Court.
2022: Adeleke’s revenge, and the courts
The rematch on 16 July 2022 went the other way. Adeleke took 403,371 votes (50.1%) to Oyetola’s 375,027 (46.6%), making Oyetola the second Osun governor to lose a re-election bid. On 27 January 2023 the election tribunal ruled that the result had been inflated by over-voting and declared Oyetola the winner, but the Court of Appeal and then the Supreme Court set that aside, and Adeleke stayed in office. Oyetola became Minister of Marine and Blue Economy in 2023.
2026: re-election on a new ticket
Adeleke fell out with the PDP’s national leadership and moved to the Accord party for his re-election bid; INEC’s final candidate list for the 2026 election included no PDP candidate. On 15 August 2026 he was re-elected with 511,067 votes against 444,815 for the APC’s Bola Oyebamiji, a margin of 66,252. A petition filed against his victory in the PDP’s name was disowned by the party itself in September 2026.
The results at a glance
| Year | Winner (party) | Votes | Runner-up (party) | Votes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Adebisi Akande (AD) | 295,557 | APP candidate | not published |
| 2003 | Olagunsoye Oyinlola (PDP) | 493,509 | Adebisi Akande (AD) | 237,041 |
| 2007 | Olagunsoye Oyinlola (PDP); overturned for Aregbesola in 2010 | 426,669 | Rauf Aregbesola (AC) | 240,722 |
| 2014 | Rauf Aregbesola (APC) | 394,684 | Iyiola Omisore (PDP) | 292,747 |
| 2018 | Gboyega Oyetola (APC) | 255,505 | Ademola Adeleke (PDP) | 255,023 |
| 2022 | Ademola Adeleke (PDP) | 403,371 | Gboyega Oyetola (APC) | 375,027 |
| 2026 | Ademola Adeleke (Accord) | 511,067 | Bola Oyebamiji (APC) | 444,815 |
What comes next
Osun does not vote for governor in the February 2027 general elections. Adeleke’s second term runs to November 2030.
