Fresh fears of further violence have gripped Osun State ahead of the August 15 governorship election, with the two major opposition camps, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Accord Party, claiming to have lost a combined 18 members in the build-up to the poll.
CDA News Nigeria gathered that the development has heightened concerns over the safety of voters, political parties, and election officials, with the deployment of 15,000 policemen to the state generating sharply divided reactions among political stakeholders and civil society groups. The build-up to the election has been marked by a string of violent incidents across the state, ranging from attacks on party supporters and campaign convoys to shootings and alleged assassination attempts.
Among the flashpoints, CDA News Nigeria reports that an Accord Party member, Kolade Eluyera, was killed in Irewole Local Government Area in May, an incident the party blamed on alleged APC supporters, a claim the opposition party rejected. Tension escalated further on June 3 when the Accord chairman in Osogbo Local Government, Asimiyu Ajibola, was shot by gunmen and hospitalised. Another death was recorded in Esa-Oke, where an Accord supporter, Ajayi Rogba, was killed amid the heightened political activity, an incident that similarly triggered competing accusations between the two camps.
According to figures from the non-partisan Kimpact Development Initiative, 44 election-related violent incidents resulting in 13 fatalities were recorded in Osun State between October 2025 and June 2026. However, the political parties themselves cited higher figures for their own members, with the APC campaign council alleging 10 deaths among its ranks during the electioneering period, while the Accord Party said eight of its members had been killed. CDA News Nigeria notes that the combined figure of 18 deaths claimed by the two parties has not been independently verified as a single confirmed toll, though the allegations have deepened fears of possible reprisal attacks around the election.
Speaking on behalf of the APC campaign council, Mr Kehinde Ayantunji said the party had recorded significant losses across several communities. “Since the beginning of this campaign, they have killed nothing less than 10 members of our party in Ilesa, Iwo, Osogbo, Ijebu-Jesa and some other communities. It is unfortunate that human life is involved and there is no election that is worth the life of any human being,” he said, adding that the party’s focus remained on the professionalism and capacity of security agencies rather than the number of personnel deployed.
On its part, the Accord Party’s Media Director, Mr Oladele Bamiji, said the party had lost about eight people to violence recorded in areas including Oriade, Ijebu-Jesha, Ilobu, Ikire, and Osogbo. “The level of violence has been so bad, because people who have humanity at heart, who have blood running in their vein cannot be happy to loose just single person not to talk of eight,” Bamiji said, describing the situation as disheartening and questioning whether the police deployment, at roughly four to five officers per polling unit across nearly 4,000 units statewide, was adequate.
CDA News Nigeria gathered that reactions to the 15,000-personnel deployment have been mixed among civil society groups. The coalition Osun Masterminds described the scale of the deployment as a form of militarisation. Its spokesperson, Mr Ayo Ologunde, argued that such a heavy police presence could itself generate fear and voter apathy, while warning that concentrating officers in Osun could create security gaps in neighbouring states.
However, the Convener of Dialogue 365, Mr Saka Waheed, backed the deployment, arguing it was necessary to check the wave of killings and secure a peaceful vote. “We demanded for protection, now we are having it. We cannot call it militarisation, the incessant killing in the past months show that if there is no enough security, there may be further killings on election day,” Waheed said. A former chairman of the House of Assembly Committee on Information, Mr Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, similarly defended the deployment, suggesting it may be driven by intelligence available to the Federal Government and describing such measures as routine during election periods, while still calling for decisive action against extrajudicial killings.
With the poll only days away, CDA News Nigeria gathered that attention has now shifted to how security agencies will manage the volatile political climate, particularly in flashpoint areas including Osogbo, Ede, Ife, Oriade, Ijebu-Ijesha, Ilobu, and Ikire. Stakeholders have called for restraint among political parties and their supporters, urging that the heavy security deployment be used strictly to protect voters and maintain peace rather than intimidate the electorate.
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