Former Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has alleged that the Accord Party spent not less than N40bn to secure victory in the August 15 Osun State governorship election.
Fayose made the allegation during an interview with TVC journalist, Nifemi Oguntoye, published on the journalist’s X account on Wednesday.
The former governor was responding to claims by Afrobeats star, David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, that the All Progressives Congress spent about N110bn on vote-buying during the poll.
Davido, a nephew of Governor Ademola Adeleke, who contested the election on the platform of the Accord Party, had argued that the party did not deploy money to win the election but relied on the support of Osun voters.
Fayose disputed that position, insisting that the two major contenders spent heavily during the election.
According to him, the financial resources deployed by the Accord Party alone could not have been less than N40bn.
“Accord Party led the opponents. The money that went to that election from the Accord Party itself cannot be under N40 billion. I stand to be corrected,” Fayose said.
He further alleged that more than N7.5bn was released to local governments and wards shortly before the election.
“On Monday, they sent over N7.5 billion to the various local governments, various wards. The minimum for the wards that got the minimum would be about N35 million,” he alleged.
Fayose said the alleged distribution covered wards comprising about seven to nine polling units.
He did not, however, provide evidence to support the figures or substantiate the alleged payments.
The former governor maintained that both Accord and APC exceeded the legally prescribed spending limit for political parties during the election.
“The fact remains that both parties spent stupendously. They spent beyond the threshold like every other political party,” he said.
Fayose also referred to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s action against an Osun State Government account, alleging that a substantial payment shortly before the election raised questions.
“The N120 million that went out like a week before the election that prompted the EFCC to freeze their account shows that something is not right,” he said.
Despite his allegations of excessive spending, Fayose said the election result could not be explained solely by financial inducements. He argued that the Adeleke family’s strong political base in Ede played a major role in Governor Adeleke’s victory.
Adeleke secured 511,067 votes against the 444,815 votes recorded by the APC candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, giving the incumbent a winning margin of 66,252 votes.
Fayose said about 46,000 of the margin came from Ede, where the Adeleke family enjoys considerable political influence.
“The Adelekes are rooted in their hometown. Omisore or APC has no presence. So courting an Omisore or giving an Omisore the nomination, what would it change? Nothing,” he said.
“Because 66,000 votes differential, 46,000 from Ede alone. You can’t do nothing about it.”
He therefore rejected the suggestion that the APC’s defeat was primarily caused by its choice of candidate, arguing that the Adeleke family’s dominance in Ede gave the governor a significant electoral advantage.
Fayose also advised the APC to challenge the election result in court if it believed there were sufficient grounds to do so.
“I think they should go to court,” he said.
Asked whether the party would gain anything from litigation, he said the figures should be subjected to legal scrutiny where there were grounds for contesting them.
“I believe it was pirated. That’s what I believe,” he said, referring to the votes attributed to the Adeleke stronghold in Ede.
The former governor further said President Bola Tinubu could have used the influence of the Federal Government to tilt the election in favour of the APC but deliberately chose not to do so.
He had earlier described Tinubu’s handling of the Osun election as “magnanimous”, drawing a comparison with the 2018 Ekiti governorship election.
Fayose, who remains a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, also played down suggestions that the Accord victory had significantly strengthened the opposition ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He said the opposition remained disadvantaged because its various tendencies had failed to unite around a common political platform capable of challenging the APC effectively.
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