Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke has berated the National Secretary of African Democratic Congress (ADC), Rauf Aregbesola, over his comment to unseat him in 2026 governorship election fixed for August 8.

The Nation reports that Aregbesola, who is an ex-governor of Osun State and former Interior Minister, during his homecoming on Sunday, faulted Adeleke’s style of governance and vowed that ADC would unseat him in 2026.

Adeleke, reacting to comments of the ADC national secretary, described Aregbesola’s administration as

the worst in Osun history, which was characterised by half salary, uncompleted projects, education tablets (Opon Imo) scam, among others.

The governor, in a statement through his spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, noted that ‘’Osun State residents are still suffering from the inhumane maladministration he inflicted on the state while in office.’’

According to him, “a man who left a legacy of huge state debt, half salary, scam learning tablets (Opon Imo) and several fanciful, inflated, uncompleted projects.

“The empty boast of Mr Aregbesola about 2026 is a symptom of a troubled mind, who sees wrong vision, who is battling his benefactor and who is haunted by the pains and suffering he inflicted on millions of Osun people through his evil policies and programmes. A man who should be remorseful and tender public apologies for his years of maladministration has the audacity to threaten Governor Adeleke, who is clearing the mess he left behind after his eight years of anti-people, thoughtless leadership.

“Mr Aregbesola’s wickedness against workers, public servants and Osun people knows no bounds while he wielded state power. A man who introduced half salary, misapplied contributory state pension fund and misused state cooperative deductions fund should be ashamed of his temerity to attack a governor who is now paying up the half salary affliction, clearing the unjustified debt and rehabilitating brutalised Osun workers.”

He said: “The Adeleke administration has paid 28 months out of the half salary left behind by Mr Aregbesola. The current administration has paid close to N60billion in pension debt, a legacy of this same Aregbesola. ‘’Pensioners and workers generally are not praying for a return to the evil days of a bad administrator, who left his state in ruin after eight years.”

Rasheed continued: “Within less than three years, Governor Adeleke has surpassed government delivery of the eight years of Mr Aregbesola without borrowing a kobo for infrastructure projects. The current administration has reduced Osun debt left by Mr Aregbesola by 40 per cent as confirmed by the Debt Management Office.

“Mr Aregbesola is invited to note that Governor Adeleke has constructed about 200 Kilometres of roads, rehabilitated over 200 schools and health centres, placed over 30, 000 pensioners on free health insurance care, provided critical medical surgeries to over 60,000 Osun residents, completed several abandoned projects at Osun State University, made University of Ilesa a reality, among several others.

“If Mr Aregbesola is to accuse Governor Adeleke of non-performance, we await his review of the dualisation of palace to brewery junction at Ilesa, which he failed to achieve while in office. He should check out the flyover projects at Ile Ife and Osogbo and the dualisation projects ongoing at Iwo, among others.

“Osun people know their present and past governors. Our people are smart enough to know that the worst era for Osun State is that of Mr Aregbesola under whom many pensioners lost their lives, thousands of lives were disrupted, and the state plunged into unsustainable debt that is still hurting the state to date. No voter in Osun is ready for a return to the dark days.

“We, therefore, dismiss Mr Aregbesola’s boast as a blurry vision of another world other than Osun where Governor Adeleke has received accolades and awards for delivering on good governance and where Osun people have appreciated the local content policy, the non-borrowing policy, and the people’s first style of the current governor.

“Mr Aregbesola is a shrew (Asin ti o mo pe oun un n run) who does not know that he is smelling. 2026 is a payback time when Osun people will punish the former governor and his new party for wilfully inflicting pains and suffering on Osun people throughout his eight years rule.”