Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has thanked Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, for publicly reaffirming his support for President Bola Tinubu’s bid for re-election in 2027.

Keyamo reacted to Adeleke’s endorsement in a post on X, describing the governor as a “man of integrity and honour.”

“Thank you, Governor Ademola Adeleke, for the public and unequivocal endorsement of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the 2027 Presidential Election,” Keyamo said.

He added, “You are a man of integrity and honour. ‘Agreement is agreement.”

Adeleke had renewed his backing for Tinubu while delivering his victory speech following his re-election in the August 15 Osun governorship election.

The governor praised Tinubu for what he described as the President’s support for a free and fair electoral process in the state.

“At this point, I must deeply appreciate Mr President, His Excellency, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his strong support for a free and fair election,” Adeleke said.

Adeleke also described Tinubu as “a son of Osun State” before formally restating his support for the President’s second-term bid.

“Mr President is a son of Osun State and I hereby reaffirm my earlier endorsement of him for second term in the 2027 presidential election,” the governor said.

Adeleke’s endorsement came after he secured another term in office, defeating his closest challenger, Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the governorship election.

The organisation made the recommendations on Sunday in its Process and Results Verification Statement delivered by the Chair of its 2026 Osun Election Observation Mission, Dr Asmau Maikudi, in Osogbo on Sunday.

Maikudi, alongside Yiaga Africa Executive Director, Samson Itodo, commended Osun voters for their resilience and participation in the August 15 governorship election and urged them to continue holding political parties and candidates accountable for their campaign promises.

“Yiaga Africa commends the people of Osun for their resilience and commitment by turning out to vote in the election,” the organisation said.

It recommended that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, issue binding, uniform guidance to presiding officers on the acceptance of downloadable Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, and their use for voter accreditation.

Yiaga Africa also called on INEC to conduct a comprehensive post-election technical audit of BVAS devices to identify the causes of failures and strengthen device testing, maintenance and rapid technical support before the 2027 elections.

It further urged the electoral commission to publish the causes of biometric authentication failures recorded during accreditation and outline the remedial measures to be implemented ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The organisation also recommended improved training and supervision of ad hoc election officials, stressing the need for consistency in applying election-day procedures across polling units.

On election security, Yiaga Africa urged security agencies to review their deployment arrangements and ensure joint movement of security personnel, election officials and sensitive materials from Registration Area Centres, RACs, to polling units on election day.

It also called on the Nigeria Police Force to publish a report on its deployment during the Osun election, including the number of arrests made and plans for prosecution.

“This is important in ensuring perpetrators of violence that led to the death of citizens in the pre-election phase are properly prosecuted,” Yiaga Africa said.

The organisation urged political parties to invest in systematic training of polling agents on the Electoral Act 2026, INEC regulations and guidelines, as well as voter education ahead of the 2027 elections.

Yiaga Africa also called on security agencies, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, to extend enforcement against vote buying beyond polling-unit precincts.

“Security agencies, the EFCC and the ICPC should extend enforcement beyond the polling unit precinct to the surrounding spaces where inducement now takes place, and should arrest and prosecute offenders, including party financiers and agents,” it added.

The organisation said its Process and Results Verification for Transparency methodology involved 300 observers, 32 mobile observers and 30 Local Government Area results collation observers across all 30 LGAs.

“Our findings were based on reports from 289 of the 300 sampled polling units, representing 96 per cent coverage,” it said.

Yiaga Africa said the official results announced by INEC were consistent with its statistical estimates, and stressed that the finding specifically confirmed the accuracy of polling-unit result tabulation and did not remove concerns over reported vote buying and voter inducement.

It also said INEC’s 43 per cent official turnout fell within its estimated range of 42.5 to 44.8 per cent.

By Bayo Wahab

Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has reaffirmed his support for President Bola Tinubu’s bid for a second term in office in the 2027 presidential election.

Adeleke re-endorsed the President on Sunday while delivering his victory speech following his re-election as governor of Osun State.

The governor, who had earlier endorsed Tinubu for another term, commended the President for what he described as his support for a free and fair governorship election in the state.

“At this point, I must deeply appreciate Mr President, His Excellency, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his strong support for a free and fair election,” Adeleke said.

The governor described Tinubu as “a son of Osun State” and used the occasion to renew his endorsement of the President’s 2027 presidential bid.

“Mr President is a son of Osun State and I hereby reaffirm my earlier endorsement of him for second term in the 2027 presidential election,” he said.

Adeleke had earlier disclosed that Tinubu called him to congratulate him on his victory before the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) formally announced the final result.

The governor’s renewed endorsement comes after he secured re-election in Saturday’s governorship election, defeating his closest challenger, Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

INEC declared Adeleke winner after he polled 511,067 votes, while Oyebamiji secured 444,815 votes. The African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate, Najeem Salaam, came third with 17,180 votes.