Osun: APC’s defeat not Adeleke’s trade-off for supporting Tinubu – Hakeem Baba-Ahmed

Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, a former political adviser to President Bola Tinubu, has denied the notion that the All Progressives Congress, APC, losing the Osun State governorship election is a compromise for Governor Ademola Adeleke's support for Tinubu ahead of the 2027 presidential election. Adeleke secured victory in Saturday's closely fought election, garnering 511,067 votes, while APC's candidate Bola Oyebamiji finished second with 444,815 votes, and Najeem Salaam of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) came in third with 17,180 votes.

Prior to the election, Adeleke and his Accord Party had endorsed Tinubu as their presidential candidate for 2027. Baba-Ahmed, speaking on X, dismissed conspiracy theories about a trade-off, stating, "I prefer to believe Accord Party won fairly. I believe the APC can be defeated in fair elections." He also criticized the "clumsy intervention" by Tinubu's party, PBAT, in the EFCC's frozen funds case, suggesting it worsened the situation. Baba-Ahmed warned that Osun State would reject the APC again in 2027.