{"id":171133,"date":"2025-07-25T11:02:47","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T10:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/adeleke-will-defeat-oyetola-again-in-2026"},"modified":"2025-07-25T12:21:47","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T11:21:47","slug":"adeleke-will-defeat-oyetola-again-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/adeleke-will-defeat-oyetola-again-in-2026","title":{"rendered":"Adeleke Will Defeat Oyetola Again in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>The Special Adviser on Political Matters to Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State, Muniru Raji, has criticised former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola, describing him as the weakest possible opponent in the forthcoming 2026 governorship election.<\/p>\n<p>Raji, who made this known in a podcast, Lero Temi, in Osogbo, added that Oyetola, who is the current Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, would be soundly defeated if he should be adopted as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2026 Osun Governorship Election.<\/p>\n<p>He made this known on the backdrop of the clarification of the defection rumour involving Governor Adeleke and the adoption of President Bola Tinubu for the 2027 presidential election by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State.<\/p>\n<p>He said, \u201cAdegboyega Oyetola is the easiest candidate to defeat in any guber election. If the APC decides to make him their flag bearer, I assure you that Governor Adeleke will defeat him soundly once again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGovernor Ademola Adeleke defeated him in 2022. If he comes out again in 2026, Governor Adeleke will defeat him once again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Raji also disclosed that Governor Adeleke has no intention of defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), despite recent political developments in the state.<\/p>\n<p>Raji, who held that defections from political parties are normal occurrences in Nigerian politics, added that when Adeleke assumed office as governor, all elected political office holders were members of the All Progressives Congress (APC).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDefection is normal. But I want you to know that when Adeleke became governor, the PDP did not have any elected political office holder in office but the APC,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He emphasised that the loyalty of the electorate outweighs the importance of elected officials.<\/p>\n<p>Raji noted that the voters have continued to express their support for Adeleke and his re-election ambitions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe elected political office holders are not as important as the electorates. They have been backing Adeleke since 2018, 2022, and even now, ahead of the 2026 governorship election, we have their solid backing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe electorates have assured us of their votes. Those that have resigned from the party have their reasons for leaving. Maybe they have seen that their ambition is more important than those of the electorates that voted for them,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>While confirming Governor Adeleke\u2019s plan to seek re-election under the PDP in the 2026 governorship election, Raji said, \u201cAdeleke will contest again under the PDP in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also dismissed the alleged internal crisis within the national leadership of the PDP, particularly the issue involving the position of the party\u2019s National Secretary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe issues with the PDP at the national level with reference to the National Secretary have been resolved. They have resolved to work with the candidate that the Independent National Electoral Commission recognised. So, Adeleke is not leaving the PDP.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Addressing speculations that the governor had met with APC chieftains regarding a possible defection, Raji firmly denied such claims.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can assure you that Adeleke did not meet with any APC members,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n<p>Raji, however, stated that Governor Adeleke and the PDP in Osun would support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu\u2019s re-election bid.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn 2027, Adeleke and the PDP will vote for APC and Tinubu as President. This is because the president is losing his support base in the North. We are voting because Tinubu is a Yoruba man from the South.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. The Special Adviser on Political Matters to Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State, Muniru Raji, has criticised former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola, describing him as the weakest possible opponent in the forthcoming 2026 governorship election. Raji, who made this known in a podcast, Lero Temi, in Osogbo, added that Oyetola, who is the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":171132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[594,34,254,12575,1371],"class_list":["post-171133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-adeleke","tag-apc","tag-nigeria","tag-osun-2026","tag-oyetola"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Adeleke Will Defeat Oyetola Again in 2026 - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Special Adviser on Political Matters to Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State, Muniru Raji, has criticised former G ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/adeleke-will-defeat-oyetola-again-in-2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Adeleke Will Defeat Oyetola Again in 2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Special Adviser on Political Matters to Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State, Muniru Raji, has criticised former G ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/adeleke-will-defeat-oyetola-again-in-2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-25T10:02:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-25T11:21:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/sm_1753430040.514929.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"672\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/adeleke-will-defeat-oyetola-again-in-2026#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/adeleke-will-defeat-oyetola-again-in-2026\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Adeleke Will Defeat Oyetola Again in 2026\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-25T10:02:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-25T11:21:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/adeleke-will-defeat-oyetola-again-in-2026\"},\"wordCount\":568,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/adeleke-will-defeat-oyetola-again-in-2026#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/sm_1753430040.514929.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Adeleke\",\"APC\",\"Nigeria\",\"Osun 2026\",\"Oyetola\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/adeleke-will-defeat-oyetola-again-in-2026#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/adeleke-will-defeat-oyetola-again-in-2026\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/adeleke-will-defeat-oyetola-again-in-2026\",\"name\":\"Adeleke Will Defeat Oyetola Again in 2026 - 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