ADC Accord alliance helped defeat APC in Osun, Bolaji Abdullahi says, after the party backed a strategy to prevent opposition vote splitting
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, said in Nigeria on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, that the ADC worked with the Accord Party during the Osun State governorship election to prevent the All Progressives Congress (APC) from winning the contest.
Also read: Osun election: Oyebamiji accepts result, backs APC review
The admission comes three days after the election, in which incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party secured re-election with 511,067 votes, ahead of APC candidate Bola Oyebamiji, who received 444,815 votes.
ADC candidate Najeem Salaam finished third with 17,180 votes.
Speaking on Trust TV, Abdullahi said the decision to cooperate with Accord was deliberate and based on the party’s assessment that a divided opposition could hand victory to the APC.
“We saw the possibility of collaboration,” Abdullahi 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.”
He said the ADC therefore chose to work with Accord rather than pursue a campaign that could split votes among opposition parties.
“And that was why we saw the opportunity to work together, and that was what happened,” he added.
The remarks offer a significant insight into the strategy behind the election, which had largely been viewed as a contest between Adeleke and Oyebamiji, despite Najeem Salaam providing a third major political option.
A pre-election analysis by Nigerian Democratic Report similarly described the race as primarily a two-horse contest involving Adeleke and Oyebamiji, with Salaam emerging as a notable third-force candidate.
The ADC’s position also reflects the broader political calculations surrounding the 2027 general election, with opposition parties increasingly considering cooperation as a way of challenging the APC’s national political strength.
Abdullahi said the ADC did not regard Salaam’s relatively low vote total as a political failure because the party’s immediate objective was to prevent an APC victory.
“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.”
The result was decisive but relatively close at the top. Adeleke defeated Oyebamiji by 66,252 votes, while Salaam’s 17,180 votes placed him well behind the two leading candidates.
Before the election, all three candidates had signed a peace accord alongside representatives of other participating parties, committing themselves to a peaceful contest.
The ADC’s cooperation with Accord is particularly significant because the party had presented Salaam as an alternative to both the incumbent governor and the APC candidate during the campaign.
Salaam was formally selected as the ADC’s governorship candidate after emerging from the party’s nomination process, with his campaign centred on issues including workers’ welfare, education, youth empowerment, security and local enterprise.
Abdullahi was asked whether ADC supporters had specifically been directed to vote for Adeleke.
He did not describe the arrangement as a simple transfer of votes, but confirmed the political cooperation between the two parties.
“We cooperated with the Accord Party,” he said.
According to Abdullahi, the arrangement had the backing of the ADC leadership and was intended to prevent the opposition vote from becoming fragmented.
He also resisted any suggestion that the ADC should claim sole credit for Adeleke’s victory, saying the final decision belonged to voters in Osun.
“When I say that we are not taking credit, we are saying that the credit belongs to the people of Osun State,” he said.
“The victory belongs to Ademola Adeleke, who, in spite of all odds, still managed to emerge as the governor of Osun State.”
The result follows a closely fought campaign in which Adeleke sought a second term while Oyebamiji represented the APC. The two candidates had also publicly committed to a peaceful election ahead of polling day.
For the ADC, however, the Osun outcome has become an important political case study.
Abdullahi argued that opposition parties could pose a stronger challenge to the APC in 2027 if they were prepared to put aside individual ambitions and coordinate their efforts.
Also read: Osun election: Oyebamiji accepts result, backs APC review
The admission is likely to fuel further debate over the role of opposition alliances in Nigerian politics, particularly as parties assess the lessons from Osun ahead of the next general election.
