An All Progressives Congress (APC) supporter, Ayegbo Oluwadele, was shot dead on Wednesday in Esa-Oke, Obokun Local Government Area of Osun State, days before the state's governorship election scheduled for Saturday, August 15, 2026. Oluwadele was killed near the Oluwole Oka family compound in Esa-Oke. He was the nephew of Busayo Oluwole Oke, the Director-General of the APC Campaign Council and a member of the House of Representatives.
Second APC Supporter Injured in the Attack
According to Dailytrust, a second APC supporter, Taiwo Oluwadele, was also shot during the attack and was said to be in critical condition. The Osun State Police Public Relations Officer, Abiodun Ojelabi, confirmed the killing but did not comment on the circumstances surrounding it.
APC Alleges Pattern of Violence Across the State
The APC Campaign Council spokesperson, Oluremi Omowaye, said rival political parties were behind what he described as a sustained campaign of violence against APC members. He claimed the party had lost about 40 members with no action taken to stop the attacks.
"It is sad that we are being killed while the governor is playing the victim's card," Omowaye said, adding that five people were shot in Ilesa a few days earlier, four of whom died, with one remaining in the ICU at a teaching hospital. He said the victims were allegedly targeted simply because they wore APC caps.
Omowaye also named three APC members he said were attacked in Atakumasa East Local Government Area: Idowu Laide, Ebuke Emmanuel, and Adebiyi Ebeneezer. A party chieftain, Kehinde Ayantunji, separately accused a leading member of the state House of Assembly of attacking APC members in Odo-Otin Local Government Area and targeting the party's House of Representatives candidate, Francis Eniade, near Okuku Divisional Police Station.
However, Osun State Commissioner for Information, Kolapo Alimi, denied that members of the Accord Party attacked APC supporters.
NBA and YIAGA Sound Alarm on Death Toll
At a press conference in Osogbo, Nigerian Bar Association President Afam Osigwe said available data pointed to 73 reported election-related violence incidents and approximately 29 deaths between May and July 2026. He identified Osogbo and Ilesa as flashpoints accounting for more than 50 per cent of the recorded violence, and urged security personnel deployed for the election to remain strictly neutral.
"The whole world is watching," Osigwe said, adding that the violence was neither random nor spontaneous but appeared to be "orchestrated, planned and coordinated."
YIAGA Africa Executive Director Samson Itodo put the death toll higher, saying over 35 people had been killed in the election build-up. He noted that the Osun governorship election was the last off-cycle poll before the 2027 general elections and would be the first to deploy downloadable Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) as envisioned under the Electoral Act.
INEC Confirms PVC Collection and Deployment
INEC National Commissioner Mohammed Haruna confirmed that 1,906,390 PVCs had been collected, representing 81.5 per cent of the state's 2,339,233 registered voters. The commission said it had deployed 15 Resident Electoral Commissioners to support the poll across the state's 30 local government areas, with 5,130 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System devices and 1,328 backup machines ready for the 3,763 polling units.
Legit.ng earlier reported that Senator Shehu Sani has stated that without a miracle, the incumbent governor of Osun state has little chance of surviving the next governorship election against the All Progressives Congress (APC).
