•Osogbo, Ede, Ife, Oriade, Ijebu-Ijesha, Ilobu, Ikire emerge as flashpoints

•Deployment of 15,000 policemen divides stakeholders

By Shina Abubakar

Fresh fears of further violence have gripped Osun State ahead of the August 15 governorship election, with the two major opposition parties, the All Progressives Congress, APC, and Accord Party, claiming to have lost a combined 18 members in the build-up to the poll.

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The development has heightened concerns over the safety of voters, political parties and election officials as the state prepares for the governorship election, with the deployment of 15,000 policemen generating divergent reactions among political parties and civil society organisations.

Specifically, the build-up to the August 15 election has been punctuated by a series of violent incidents across the state, ranging from attacks on party supporters and campaign convoys to shootings and alleged assassination attempts.

Gunmen

In May, an Accord Party member, Kolade Eluyera, was killed in Irewole Local Government Area, an incident the party attributed to alleged APC supporters, a claim rejected by the opposition party.

The violence escalated on June 3 when the Accord chairman in Osogbo Local Government, Asimiyu Ajibola, was shot by gunmen and left receiving treatment in hospital.

Expectedly, the incident further heightened tension between the rival camps.

There was another reported death in Esa-Oke, where an Accord supporter, Ajayi Rogba, was killed during the period of heightened political activities.

The incident again triggered accusations, with Accord supporters linking the killing to political violence, while APC members in the area denied involvement and warned against politicising the incident.

Earlier, campaign activities in Ede, Osogbo and other parts of the state had also been disrupted by clashes, shootings and attacks on campaign convoys, reinforcing concerns that political disagreements were increasingly taking a violent dimension.

The scale of the violence has since become a major concern ahead of next week’s poll.

13 fatalities

For example, Kimpact Development Initiative said 44 election-related violent incidents resulting in 13 fatalities were recorded in Osun between October 2025 and June 2026.

However, the political parties in separate chats with Sunday Vanguard, presented higher figures in relation to their members’ deaths. While the APC campaign council alleged that 10 of its members had been killed during the electioneering period, the Accord Party said eight of its people had also lost their lives.

The parties have continued to trade accusations over responsibility for the violence, with each accusing the other of being behind attacks on its members.

Although the combined figure of 18 deaths claimed by the two parties has not been independently established as a single death toll, the allegations have heightened fears of possible reprisal attacks and further violence before, during and after the election.

The security situation has therefore become a major issue in the final days of the campaign, with stakeholders divided over whether the deployment of 15,000 policemen would help prevent violence or amount to militarisation of the electoral process.

10 of our members ‘ve been killed — APC Campaign Council

The APC campaign council said the number of personnel deployed was less important than the professionalism, equipment and capacity of security agencies to ensure a free, fair and credible election.

A member of the APC campaign council, Mr Kehinde Ayantunji, who spoke on behalf of the chairman, said the 15,000 personnel could be meaningless if they lacked the proper equipment and training needed to ensure a peaceful poll.

Ayantunji said: “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.”

Speaking on the deployment of police officers, he said the party was not interested in the number of personnel but in the conduct of a free and fair election.

He said: “Most important thing is not about number, it’s about the professional conduct of the Police, capacity to protect the people’s vote, we are interested in free, fair and credible election, we are also interested in adequate security to ensure that the Accord members do not succeed in creating fear and apprehension in the mind of the people so that our supporters and party members can come out to vote for the candidate of their choice.”

The police, he said, “must do everything possible in terms of personnel, equipment, strategy and logistics to make sure that every vote counts in all the 3,761 polling units we have in Osun State. That’s our stand.”

Oriade, Ijebu-Ijesha, Ikire

On its part, the Accord Party said the number of policemen deployed might not be adequate considering the level of violence witnessed in some towns across the state, even as it called for more security personnel to ensure the safety of voters and votes.

The party’s Media Director, Mr Oladele Bamiji, said: “The Accord party has lost about eight people to violence since since the commencement of this campaign. We have seen killings in Oriade, Ijebu-Jesha, Ilobu, Ikire to be precise and even in 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. So, it is disheartening, frightening at the same time. People descend so low just because of electioneering, it is not a good way to lead people and it is a very bad moment for everyone.”

Bamiji also questioned the numerical arrangement of the deployment, considering the number of polling units across the state.

“I still don’t know the mathematical arrangement, we have very close to 4000 polling units in Osun State and we have four or five officers per polling units. To me, it is not so big, it is even inadequate. If a smaller state in terms of Local government like Ekiti, have more than us, I think there should be even more deployment. We understand that the Police are not the only security required for the electioneering, other security operatives will be around. I want to believe that they will compliment each other and have a peaceful election,” he said.

It’s militarisation of election, says Osun Masterminds

However, a coalition of civil society organisations in the state, The Osun Masterminds, expressed worry that the heavy deployment amounted to militarisation of the polls.

The spokesperson for the group, Mr Ayo Ologunde, said: “The deployment of 15,000 Police men for gubernatorial election in Osun signifies militarisation, the State and the Nation as a whole should have grown to a level where election should not be seen as war, even in a situation of war, 15,000 police officers is a lot.

“Police uniform create fear in the mind of the citizens, which causes voters apathy, now that 15,000 police have been deployed, some of them will start illegal checkpoint across the local government they are taken to, people won’t be able to walk freely at night for the fear of checkpoint in a state where there should be freedom of movement.

“Second, you have created likely security loop holes in the other states, because criminals are not resting, they know that on the day of election, there will be less policemen in the neighbouring state, hoodlums will want to take advantage of that deployment to commit crime in neighbouring state.”

In addition, he said: “Voting is a process of electing leaders, not a process of militarisation or to create undue fear.

“These policemen are not going to be deployed for free, they will be given allowances. Instead of giving them millions of naira as election allowance. Why don’t you use the money for infrastructure. It is a waste of resources at a time like this in the nation?”

15,000 policemen will stop violence
— Dialogue 365

However, the Convener of Dialogue 365, Mr Saka Waheed, backed the deployment, saying it was necessary to stop the violence and allow the conduct of a peaceful election.

Waheed said: “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; it will be very unfortunate to allow miscreants take over our electoral process killing people.”

He added: “Let us have more than that, as long as our people will be secured that’s being proactive there can even be up to 50,000. We have an history of security deployment in Osun, even when those security came to harass our people during the Aregbesola time, despite that people still came out to say this is who we want as our Governor.”

Heavy deployment of security personnel driven by intelligence—ex-lawmaker

A former chairman of the House of Assembly Committee on Information, Mr Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, also threw his weight behind the deployment, saying it may be driven by intelligence available to the Federal Government.

Oyintiloye said: “The country faces security challenges, and the heavy deployment of security personnel to Osun State may be driven by intelligence available to the Federal Government.

“Such deployments are routine during election periods, and the state is familiar with them. There is, therefore, no cause for alarm.

“Nonetheless, concerns over rising incidents of extrajudicial killings remain. Security agencies must act decisively, while the government ramps up public sensitisation to encourage voter turnout without fear.”

With the election only days away, attention has consequently shifted to how the security agencies will manage the volatile political environment, particularly in areas considered flashpoints.

The competing claims by APC and Accord over the deaths of their members have also raised fresh concerns about possible retaliation and the potential for political violence to escalate before, during and after the election.

Stakeholders have therefore called for restraint among political parties and their supporters, while urging security agencies to ensure that the heavy deployment is used to protect voters and maintain peace rather than intimidate the electorate.