Osun election result validates ballot supremacy, Senate Leader tells APC

Senate Leader Michael Opeyemi Bamidele has called on the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Osun State to acknowledge Governor Ademola Adeleke's election victory and participate constructively in governance. Bamidele's remarks come after Adeleke, who ran on the Accord Party ticket, won re-election with 511,067 votes, outpacing APC's Bola Oyebamiji, who received 444,815 votes.

Bamidele, who also chairs the National Assembly South-West Caucus, emphasised that the election outcome demonstrates the decisive power wielded by voters in a democratic system. He urged all candidates to respect the result and directed Oyebamiji specifically to offer substantive policy suggestions that could improve service delivery across Osun.

The Senate Leader congratulated Adeleke and stressed that his victory carried responsibility to ensure governance that includes all segments of society. The Osun election recorded a voter turnout of 51.57 per cent, with participating political parties gathering over one million votes combined.

Bamidele used this participation rate to project that President Bola Tinubu could potentially secure up to 10 million votes across the South-West region in the 2027 presidential election, based on the demonstrated electoral engagement in the state. Bamidele's intervention reflects efforts within Nigeria's political establishment to frame election defeats as moments for institutional acceptance rather than prolonged contestation.

His statement was issued on Monday following the completion of the Osun governorship election process, signalling an attempt at early consensus-building between the winning and losing parties in the state.