Although 2026, when the election for the next governor of Osun State is some 18 months away, the battle for Bole Ige House, as the Seat of Government is called in Osun, has started, Sunday Telegraph can report.

The midterm celebration of Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State last week, has stirred up various forces, who are interested in who becomes the next governor of the State in 2026, when the tenure of the current tenant in Bole Ige Hosue, as the Government House of the State of the Living Spring is called would come to an end.

Sources familiar with happenings in the state said that there are three major contenders and forces. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with Adeleke as the arrow head; the Minister of the Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola with the support of the Presidency and his party – All Progressives Congress (APC), with the party chairman Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, who is telling anyone who cares to listen that Osun State is the next to be taken over by the APC.

It would be recalled that shortly after the ruling APC won the off-cycle election in Edo State in September, Ganduje said that the APC would capture the entire South West and the next would be Ondo and Osun states.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), announced the APC as winner of Ondo State and the next would be Osun and Oyo.

Another force is the Osun Progressives led by the immediate past Minister of the Interior and an ally of the President Bola Tinubu, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.

All the three are already marshalling their forces and resources for the looming battle for Abere.

Watchers of political happenings in the state said it is going to be an interesting battle with Aregbesola expected to play a critical role, depending on where he throws his hat.

There are various calculations. Indeed, political pundits are waiting to see a gravitation of Aregbesola towards the incumbent governor again. Of course, some of his core loyalists are serving in his cabinet.

One of his die- hard loyalists is the current Commissioner of Information and Public Enlightenment, in Osun State, Oluomo Kolapo Alimi.

However, Sunday Telegraph learnt that some people were already reaching out to Aregbesola, telling him that if he wants to end the feud with his friend of many years, who is the current President of Nigeria, he should throw his hat where President Tinubu is looking at. That place is the current Minister of the Blue Economy, Oyetola.

Further, the Source said that Aregbesola himself is in a dilemma of some sort. Some of his core loyalists are telling him that if Oyetola returns, the Osun Progressives would be completely emasculated and they are telling Aregbesola that he should stay where he is and continue to play the good bride, so that anybody that is in better positioned to give the Osun progressives a better deal is where they would go.

Furthermore, the Source said that there is an interesting development. Some political juggernauts of the governor are telling him to consider defecting. The Chief Press Secretary (CPS), to the governor, Mallam Adewale Rasheed, debunked this last week in Sunday Telegraphs’ report.

However, sources close to the governor said that this is on the card. That if at the end of the day, he goes to the APC, the party might give him the ticket of the governorship.