The Adeleke family members in their ambition to contest for the Osun State governorship election are experiencing rivalry and enmity at the moment.

The members of the family — Senator Ademola Adeleke and Dele Adeleke — have been screened and cleared as aspirants for the Osun governorship election under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The two family members were part of six governorship aspirants for the July 16 governorship election in Osun State cleared by Mohammed Adoke, the chairman of the party’s screening committee.

There has been continuous bitter rivalry within the family over the ambition of Dele, who served as Ademola’s agent at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in Osun during the 2018 poll.

Dele’s ambition was a rumour until he obtained expression and nomination form amounting to N21million in December 2021 to officially join the Osun governorship race.

Reports revealed that this had led to open confrontations and verbal war between a member of the family, David Adeleke (Davido) and his cousin, Dele earlier this week.

Music superstar, Davido took to his verified Twitter handle on Tuesday to warn the people of Osun to be wary of Dele, saying,

Intellectual that has not succeeded in building one single thing in his life on his own. This life ehn!! Osun beware of FAKES! Dele.

Wonderful! Me I finished uni with a 2:1. But it’s now cousin dele who struggled to even get a 2:2 that is now forming “intellectual”. Intellectual that has not succeeded in building one single thing in his life on his own. This life ehn! Osun beware of FAKES! @deleadeleke001 pic.twitter.com/FwrlKNKLF0

— Davido (@davido) January 18, 2022

His uncle — Ademola responded saying:

Don’t worry nephew God got us #IMOLEDE #OSUN2022.

Again on Wednesday, Davido accused his cousin of sponsoring an article about him and mentioned the death of his mother which the hip hop star sees as offensive and further threatened to expose his co-family member, Dele, to the Osun people.

In his response, Dele said Osun deserves the best. He divulged that he has been receiving death threats from Davido’s fans since the open confrontation on Tuesday.

In his tweets on Wednesday, Dele said,

You are the king of social media & you know people take it upon themselves to write whatever they believe will give them clout. So many of your fans came to my SM handles to threaten me and some even asked me to go and die. Did you send them to threaten my life?.

I seriously doubt it and I do not believe you will do such a thing. So, irrespective of politics, please note that I am not that kind of person; I have maintained decorum in the face of provocation and I will continue to do so.

I respect your decision and choice to support Uncle Demola and that is the beauty of democracy. It is possible we can all make our individual choices without rancour and bitterness. We can all follow different paths and still live as one big, happy family.

The crisis has continued to generate reactions on social media.

Meanwhile, the PDP has scheduled the governorship primary election for March 7, 2021.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.