Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has launched attack on the former governor of the state and current Interim National Secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Rauf Aregbesola, accusing him of leaving behind a trail of debt, unpaid salaries, and uncompleted projects during his eight-year tenure.

Aregbesola, who governed Osun from November 27, 2010, to November 27, 2018, had previously maintained a cordial relationship with Adeleke, who assumed office in November 2022.

However, tensions appear to have flared after Aregbesola’s recent visit to Osogbo, the state capital, where he began mobilising supporters ahead of the 2027 general elections.

While addressing his supporters on Sunday, Aregbesola urged the people of Osun to join him in the ADC, promising that the party would wrest power from the ruling administration in the 2026 gubernatorial election.

Reacting to the former governor’s political move, Governor Adeleke, in a strongly worded statement issued by his spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, accused Aregbesola of attempting to orchestrate his removal in the August 8, 2026 governorship poll.

“A man who left a legacy of huge state debt, half salary, scam learning tablets (Opon Imo), and several fanciful, inflated, uncompleted projects,” the statement read.

“Your tenure is the worst in Osun history. The empty boast of Mr Aregbesola about 2026 is a symptom of a troubled mind who sees the wrong vision, is battling his benefactor, and is haunted by the pains and suffering he inflicted on millions of Osun people through his evil policies and programmes.”

Adeleke described Aregbesola’s tenure as “anti-people” and “thoughtless,” adding that the former governor should “be remorseful and tender public apologies for his years of maladministration” instead of issuing political threats.

“Mr Aregbesola’s wickedness against workers, public servants, and Osun people knows no bounds while he wielded state power,” the statement added.

On the issue of inherited financial obligations, Adeleke said his administration had paid 28 months of the half-salaries left behind by Aregbesola and cleared nearly N60 billion in pension debt attributed to the ex-governor’s administration.

“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,” he added.

Adeleke also claimed his government had made significant progress in under three years, without borrowing for infrastructure projects. He stated that Osun’s debt burden, inherited from Aregbesola’s administration, had been reduced by 40 per cent.

“Mr Aregbesola is invited to note that Governor Adeleke has constructed about 200km 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,” the statement highlighted.

“If 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,” it continued.

Expressing confidence in his re-election prospects, Adeleke stated that Osun people were fully aware of the contrast between his administration and Aregbesola’s era.

“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 still hurting the state to date. No voter in Osun is ready for a return to the dark days.”

He dismissed Aregbesola’s ambition as “a blurry vision of another world other than Osun,” emphasizing that his administration had received recognition for “good governance,” local content policy, non-borrowing strategy, and a people-first approach.

Adeleke predicted that the 2026 governorship poll would be “payback time” when the people of Osun would reject Aregbesola and the ADC for what he described as their past failures and hardship caused during the former governor’s time in office.

Punch reports that efforts to get a response from Oluseun Abosede, spokesperson for the Omoluabi Progressives, the political group aligned with Aregbesola proved abortive, as phone calls to his line did not go through, and WhatsApp messages were not responded to at the time of filing this report.

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