The Osun State governor, Ademola Adeleke is said to be shopping for an alternative platform outside his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for his re-election in 2026, following the deepening and irreconcilable crisis rocking its national leadership.
The Nation recalled that PDP has been embroiled in a crisis over factions loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nysom Wike, and the Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, which has made it difficult to administer the party unanimously, including the nomination of candidates in Ekiti and Osun states.
Amidst this development, Adeleke may not be properly nominated as the candidate of the party in accordance with the timetable issued by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which fixed November 24th to December 15 2025 for all the political parties to hold their respective primaries.
The PDP National Vice-Chairman(South), Engr. Kamoru Ajisafe, confirmed that the party cannot nominate a candidate owing to the internal crisis.
While featuring on a private radio station, Rave FM in Osun State during a talk show programme, Frank Talk, monitored by The Nation, Ajisafe berated the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nysome Wike and factional secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu over the crisis rocking the party.
According to him, “I am not happy with the way things are going in the party, Anyanwu is my personal friend. Like that of Ekiti, we said we are going to do the primary we have written to INEC to monitor the exercise but the Anyanwu group wrote to INEC that there should be no primary.
“Like that of Osun State now, they gave us time for our primary which is December 15, Anyanwu was not ready to sign. So how do we move? That is an automatic ceding of the mandate of the election. Wike and Dr Ademola Adeleke met, they discussed freely only for Wike to come to national television and say that he advised the Osun Governor. What advice did he give? Adeleke told him that he had to stop all the shenanigans and requested what he wanted.”
Responding to Adeleke’s possible defection from PDP ahead of the primary, he said, “Let me tell you that if anything happens in Osun, it has to do with looking for a platform to contest, I am telling you. Where is the platform to contest now? If you are a very good party man, will you be happy losing someone like Taraba State governor, Osun state, like you rightly said he is planning, I don’t know about planning, a political platform is to contest, I am happy about that.
“But the problem we have in Osun is quite different from what we have in Taraba, election in Taraba and some other states is 2027, our own in Osun is 2026, the primary for any political party trying to present a candidate for the 2026 gubernatorial election is December 15. What is the position of INEC, what do we do, how are we going to manage that? After December 15, INEC by the constitution will not recognise any emergence of a candidate from any political primary.
Ajisafe added that “It is absolutely known to the whole world that there is no way that the PDP would be able to nominate a candidate for the 2026 governorship election.”
Amid this development, The Nation gathered authoritatively that Adeleke is considering the Accord Party as a source disclosed that arrangements had reached 85 per cent to conclude his move.
Reacting to the development, Osun State Chairman of the Accord Party, Mr Victor Akande denied the speculation that Adeleke had concluded plans to join his party ahead of the primary.
He said, “To us, it is still a rumour. Adeleke is not talking to us at both the state and national level. If he initiated the talks I would be carried along but nothing of such yet.”
“Although, if he wants to join us, our two hands are wide open to receive him into our party. The political party’s door doesn’t have a door, hence we can’t shut it against him.”
Meanwhile, Osun State PDP through its Director of Media, Oladele Bamiji affirmed that Adeleke is still in PDP and if he wants to leave the party, he is entitled to his decision.
Bamiji stated that “Adeleke is a strong force in Osun political space today, he would win anybody from any party. He has not told us at the party level that he is leaving. We are still united and working assiduously to ensure that he is reelected.”
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