The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has dismissed Governor Ademola Adeleke’s defection to the Accord Party as “good riddance”, insisting that the move will neither strengthen his position nor alter his dimming electoral prospects ahead of the 2026 governorship election.
In a statement issued on Wednesday in Osogbo by the state APC Chairman, Tajudeen Lawal, the party described the governor’s departure from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) formally announced last week and sealed on Tuesday at the Government House as long anticipated.
“The governor’s decision to jump ship offers him no advantage whatsoever,” the statement read.
Read also: Adeleke snubs APC, joins Accord Party
“The people of Osun have seen through the deceit and subterfuge with which he has managed his faltering administration.”
The APC accused Adeleke of abandoning the PDP and its elected officers for purely selfish reasons, rather than staying to resolve the party’s internal crises as a responsible leader would have done.
It claimed that several other parties had already rebuffed him before the little-known Accord Party agreed to take him in.
“If Governor Adeleke’s stewardship and political style were truly a source of pride, would he have been humiliatingly rejected by the parties he previously begged for shelter?” the statement asked.
The party further mocked the Accord Party as a political lightweight with no national footprint, pointing out that it currently boasts neither a single governor nor any meaningful presence across the country.
Lawal welcomed the development, declaring that Adeleke’s exit from the PDP would only simplify the APC’s task of defeating him in 2026. “His re-election bid is already a lost cause,” he asserted.
“With less than a year remaining, there is scant time to remedy three years of misgovernance. Osun indigenes, both at home and in the diaspora, are eager for change.”
The APC expressed full confidence in its preparations for the forthcoming election, pledging rigorous commitment to the electoral process.
Read also: Accord Party clears Adeleke for primary
The statement also highlighted what it called the irony of PDP leaders’ past condemnations of defections, suggesting that Adeleke’s flight exposed the deeper turmoil within the former ruling party in the state.
Governor Adeleke had on Tuesday, at the Banquet Hall of the Osun Government House in the presence of Accord’s national and state officers, confirmed that he formally joined the party on 6 November 2025 after extensive consultations with stakeholders. He simultaneously reaffirmed his intention to seek a second term in 2026 under the Accord banner.
