Osun 2026: APC, PDP trade words over use of diabolical means to win voters’ support

Leaders of the major opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State and the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have accused themselves of going diabolical and using fetish means to draw support and votes from the people of the state ahead of the 2026 governorship election in the state.

The APC, in a statement, yesterday, alleged the unhealthy desperation of the state governor, Ademola Adeleke, to retain power beyond 2026 by allegedly forcing some commercial motorcycle riders to swear oath of allegiance and continuous support for him.

Swiftly, the PDP denied it, alleging that the opposition party is known for fetish and diabolical tendencies in playing its politics, asking APC to count Adeleke out of its stock in trade.

The APC Chairman in the state, Tajudeen Lawal, in the statement issued by the party’s Director of Media and Information, Kola Olabisi, claimed that despite the governor’s “pungent abysmal poor handling of the governance of the state to the chagrin of the right-thinking members of the society,” Adeleke has now resorted to forcing commercial motorcycle and tricycle riders in the state to swear to the oath of continuous support for the PDP in all the future elections in the state with the god of iron called ‘Ogun’ in Yoruba parlance.”

Lawal alleged that reliable information has it that when it was apparent that the people of Osun State were fed up with the exhibition of indolence, inefficiency, lack of tact and diplomacy, vindictiveness, favouritism and vendetta by Adeleke, he and his cohorts have taken to various unacceptable means of coercing different groups of the state to declare continuous support for PDP’s administration in the state.

He questioned the rationale behind the governor allegedly engaging in the forceful oath of allegiance for support if truly his administration is genuinely popular in the state.

Lawal urged Adeleke to allow the people to freely make their political choices as anything short of that is an unconstitutional act.

However, the PDP, in a statement signed by its state chairman, Sunday Bisi, described the allegation as a total falsehood campaign against Governor Adeleke, warning that “no amount of concoctions will sway the good people of Osun State to return to the dark and painful era of the APC in the state.”

He pointed out that Adeleke’s incredible performance, both in terms of welfare and infrastructural development, naturally earned him the support of not just those in the transportation sector, but also across other sectors, adding that the Osun APC through its chairman, Lawal, is only echoing the disappointment of his party’s rejection from transporters in the state during a recent failed attempt to win them to their side.

Bisi called on Osun APC to “count the ruling PDP out of its devilish way to gain support,” noting that “it is never in the practice of the PDP to subscribe to oath-taking or any other voodoo means to retain support.”