The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has admitted that its decision to work with the Accord Party ahead of the August 15 Osun State governorship election was a deliberate strategy to prevent the All Progressives Congress (APC) from returning to power in the state. The party's National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, made the disclosure during an interview on Trust TV on Monday.
ADC's Pre-Election Calculation
Abdullahi explained that the ADC leadership recognized early on that a full independent campaign could split opposition votes, inadvertently giving the APC a path to victory. He said, "We saw the possibility earlier enough that if we decided to go full throttle, the possibility that the opposition would divide the votes and the APC would take the victory was there. And that was why we saw the opportunity to work together, and that was what happened."
The ADC's own governorship candidate, Najeem Salaam, polled 17,180 votes in the contest. Incumbent governor and Accord Party candidate Ademola Adeleke won the election with 511,067 votes, comfortably defeating APC's Bola Oyebamiji, who came second with 444,815 votes. Asked whether the ADC had directed supporters to back Adeleke, Abdullahi stopped short of confirming a direct endorsement, saying only, "We cooperated with the Accord Party."
APC's Defeat Is Our Victory
Abdullahi rejected the suggestion that Salaam's low vote count represented a failure for the ADC, arguing that the party's real goal was always to deny the APC a return to office in Osun. "That is why we can confidently celebrate what is going on in Osun, because for us, victory means that APC was defeated," he said. "So we don't see the fact that our governorship candidate did not emerge as an occasion of defeat or failure. The failure, the defeat of the APC, was a real victory for us."
He was also careful not to claim the ADC deserved significant credit for Adeleke's win, saying recognition belonged to the people of Osun State and to the governor himself. "The credit belongs to the people of Osun state. The victory belongs to Ademola Adeleke, who, in spite of all odds, still managed to emerge as the governor of Osun state," Abdullahi said.
A Template for 2027 Presidential Election
The ADC spokesman went further to frame the Osun outcome as a template for the 2027 presidential election, arguing that a united opposition could unseat the ruling APC at the national level. "It's something that was deliberate, and we are glad that the outcome has justified the confidence that everyone has put in the process, and it has proved that the opposition working together can actually defeat this incumbent, no matter how awesome they are," he said.
In a related development, Legit.ng earlier reported that Bola Oyebamiji, the APC governorship candidate in the Osun election, raised an alarm over what he described as a growing wave of violence targeting his party members and supporters in the days following the poll. In a statement addressed to APC members, leaders, and supporters across the state, Oyebamiji said that attacks which began before the election had intensified significantly within the 24 hours after results were declared.
