The African Democratic Congress, ADC, has revealed the reason for its poor performance in the just concluded Osun State governorship election.
Speaking during an interview on Trust TV, ADC National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, said the party’s low vote count was due to its collaboration with the Accord Party, which won the election.
Abdullahi said ADC collaborated with Accord Party to prevent the All Progressives Congress, APC, from winning.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared Governor Ademola Adeleke as winner of the August 15, 2026 election after defeating his closest rival, the All Progressives Congress, APC candidate, Bola Oyebamiji.
Adeleke won the election after polling 511,067 votes against Oyebamiji who polled 444,815 votes.
Meanwhile, the African Democratic Congress, ADC candidate Najeem Salaam, scored 17,180 votes – coming a distant third on the ballot.
Despite the wide margin between Salaam’s votes and those of the two leading candidates, Abdullahi said the ADC did not consider its performance a failure because its broader objective was to prevent the APC from reclaiming power in the state.
According to him, the party had identified the risk of opposition votes being divided early enough in the electoral process and decided to work with Accord.
“We saw the possibility of collaboration. 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,” he said.
