Osun Election 2026: Residents mock Edo Governor Okpebholo as he leaves Osun at 2AM before Adeleke's victory

• Residents jeered at Edo State governor Mr Monday Okpebholo as he left Osun State in the dead of the night ahead of Adeleke's victory.

• Okpebholo had traded words with Governor Adeleke, whom he claimed had spent the past four years dancing.

• Despite the support of the APC Governors, Ademola Adeleke won the election to secure a fresh four-year mandate.

A video clip which has gone viral online captured the moment the governor of Edo State was leaving Osun State hours before Governor Ademola Adeleke matched to victory at the polls.

In the video, timestamped 2:06 AM, a fleet of SUVs and patrol vehicles drove off while residents speaking in Yoruba mocked and jeered at the occupants. Among those the jeers were directed at was Edo State Governor Monday Okpebholo, who, ahead of the election, traded words with Governor Adeleke and his musician nephew Davido.

In the build-up to the elections, Okpebholo, while campaigning for the APC candidate Bola Oyemabiji, charged the Osun people to vote out Adeleke, whom he claimed had spent the past 4 years in office dancing. Adeleke, known as the dancing governor for his famous dance moves, fired back at Okpebholo for being jealous of his moves and described him as unintelligible. Afrobeats megastar Davido also mocked the Edo State governor by posting his WAEC result, which showed a collection of Es and Ds in several subjects on his Instagram story.

It was perhaps the tenseness of the campaign and Okpebholo's strong stance against Adeleke that forced him to leave the state in the dead of the night, as it was certain that the APC candidate had lost the election. The back and forth between the Edo governor and the Adelekes also explained the boos that accompanied him out of the state.

On August 15, 2026, the people of Osun State took to the polls to elect a governor for a four-year term. Among those on the ballot was the incumbent Ademola Adeleke, who was seeking another term in office. After hours of voting that included several incidents of voter intimidation and ballot snatching, which forced Adeleke to share a post on X calling on President Tinubu and security forces to defend democracy, he went on to victory with 511,067 votes while APC's Bola Oyebamiji secured 444,815 votes.

In the early hours of August 16, 2026, the returning officer for the election, Joshua Olalekan Ogunwole, declared Governor Adeleke of the Accord Party the winner of the hotly contested election, which drew interest across the country ahead of the 2027 general elections.