ADC’s Election Day Gambit: Did Aregbesola Deliberately Sacrifice ADC Votes to Help Accord Defeat APC?

Fresh allegations have thrown the African Democratic Congress (ADC) into turmoil following claims that the party’s poor showing in several of its traditional strongholds during Saturday’s Osun governorship election was not accidental, but the result of a deliberate election-day strategy designed to strengthen Accord and prevent the All Progressives Congress (APC) from winning the election.

According to aggrieved ADC members who spoke about the development, the alleged strategy involved encouraging sections of the ADC structure to work for Accord and Governor Ademola Adeleke, rather than deploying the party’s full machinery behind its own candidate, Dr. Najeem Salaam.

The allegations have generated considerable anger within the party because, according to the members, the objective was not necessarily to make Accord the political ally of ADC, but to prevent the APC from emerging victorious.

The APC, they argued, had become an open political opponent of the ADC, while the party’s presidential and national leadership had strong reasons to oppose an APC victory.

Sources within the ADC claimed that the political calculation behind the alleged move was straightforward: *if ADC could not realistically secure victory, its votes should be deployed in such a way as to prevent the APC from taking power.

The sources alleged that some national political figures, including former Vice President *Atiku Abubakar*, and other national leaders sympathetic to the ADC’s political project, exerted pressure on elements of the Osun leadership to pursue the strategy.

The allegation is yet to be independently established.

Atiku, however, had publicly campaigned for Salaam shortly before the election and urged Osun voters to support the ADC candidate. That public position makes the alleged election-day change of strategy particularly controversial.

The controversy centres particularly on *Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola*, former Osun State governor and National Secretary of the ADC.

Aregbesola had publicly presented the ADC as a party determined to contest the election independently. Days before the election, he reportedly said the ADC would not partner with another political party and declared his support for Salaam.

Yet party members now allege that on the morning of election day, a different political calculation emerged.

According to the allegations, the instruction was essentially: Do not allow the APC to win; where necessary, direct ADC supporters towards Accord.

For angry party members, that alleged instruction represented a fundamental contradiction between the public campaign and what they claim happened behind the scenes.

The choice of Accord, according to the allegations, was politically calculated.

The APC was regarded by sections of the ADC as the principal political enemy, particularly because of the wider national confrontation between opposition forces and the governing party.

The alleged strategy therefore sought to prevent the APC from benefiting from a divided opposition vote.

Under that calculation, Accord’s victory would be preferable to an APC victory.

However, the political cost was potentially enormous: *ADC supporters were being asked, allegedly, to abandon the party’s own candidate on election day.*

The controversy was further intensified by allegations that ADC mobilisation funds were not released to grassroots structures on election day.

Party members claim that the failure to make funds available weakened the party’s ability to transport supporters, coordinate agents and maintain its polling-unit operation.

Critics within the party now allege that the funding situation was part of the wider strategy.

They contend that if ADC structures were properly funded and fully mobilised, the party could have delivered substantially more votes for Salaam—and that this could have undermined the objective of transferring enough opposition votes to prevent an APC victory.

The allegation that funds were intentionally withheld remains unverified, and the ADC leadership has yet to publicly provide a detailed explanation of the claims.

Nowhere has the controversy generated greater emotion than *Ejigbo*, the political home of Najeem Salaam.

For years, Ejigbo has been regarded as one of Salaam’s strongest political territories.

ADC supporters therefore find it difficult to explain how the party could suffer such a dramatic setback there while its candidate was personally contesting the governorship.

The question being asked within the party is simple:

How could Najeem Salaam lose significant ground in his own political stronghold on the very day he was contesting to become governor?

For some party members, the Ejigbo result is being cited as evidence that the ADC structure may not have been fully deployed behind its candidate.

The same concern has emerged from polling units associated with prominent ADC figures.

Results from areas regarded as politically important to the party have reportedly failed to meet expectations.

Particularly significant was the reported performance of ADC at Aregbesola’s polling unit, where the APC was reported to have defeated the ADC.

The results have inevitably generated questions about whether the ADC’s grassroots structures were operating at full strength.

What is emerging from the allegations is a picture of an extraordinary political chess game.

The alleged calculation appears to have been that *ADC might sacrifice part of its own electoral strength in order to ensure that the APC did not emerge victorious.*

Supporters of the strategy could argue that preventing an APC victory was strategically more important than maximising ADC’s vote.

Opponents within the ADC, however, see it differently.

They argue that asking ADC members to support another party after months of campaigning for Salaam amounts to a betrayal of the party’s candidate and grassroots supporters.

The allegations also raise questions about the role of national opposition figures.

Atiku Abubakar had publicly appeared at the ADC campaign finale and called on voters to support Salaam, making any alleged subsequent instruction to redirect ADC supporters particularly significant.

If party members’ allegations are eventually substantiated, questions would arise as to whether national political calculations overtook the immediate interests of the ADC’s Osun governorship candidate.

If they are not true, the ADC leadership will need to explain what actually happened and why the party’s performance in several expected strongholds was so far below expectations.

Regardless of the outcome, the controversy could produce a serious internal debate within the ADC.

The party must now answer whether it went into the election with one objective publicly announced to its members while pursuing another objective privately.

For many grassroots supporters, the fundamental question is no longer merely: Did ADC fight for Najeem Salaam—or was ADC’s vote deliberately sacrificed to stop APC and deliver victory to Accord? Did they refuse to inform their members in order to avoid leakage of the plan or to avoid political motivated arrest by security agents.

That question is likely to dominate the ADC’s post-election discussions in the days ahead. And if the allegations are proven, the political consequences could extend far beyond Osun State.