Gunshots rang out on Wednesday as suspected hoodlums engaged in a gun battle with security personnel attached to the convoy of Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, at the palace of the Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Jimoh Oyetunji.
The incident happened shortly after Adeleke received his Certificate of Return from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC — Nigeria’s election body) and visited the palace to celebrate his re-election victory with the traditional ruler. Reports indicate the governor had left the INEC office in Osogbo and was seen passing through the Olaiya axis of the state capital in a convoy of about 30 vehicles at around 3:15 p.m. before heading to the palace.
How the Attack Unfolded
Sources at the palace said the hoodlums had laid siege to the area in an unregistered Toyota Sienna vehicle even before the governor arrived, positioning themselves around the Oja-Oba/Ita-Olookan area. A source said some of the attackers were engaged in a heated argument shortly before the shooting started, though the cause of the disagreement and the intended target could not immediately be established.
A shop owner near the palace, Laide Misture, said gunshots rang out just minutes after the governor and his entourage entered the building. “The guys were shooting from inside the main gate while the governor’s security team responded from inside the palace. The shooting was intense for almost three minutes before the hoodlums ran away with their vehicle before the governor’s convoy could exit the palace,” the source said.
The exchange of gunfire reportedly damaged the gate of the Ataoja’s palace, though no casualties had been recorded as of the time of the initial reports. The Osun State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, confirmed the shooting, saying suspected hoodlums were involved. “It is true there were gunshots when we were exiting the palace and the governor’s security team had to go and engage them. But the circumstances that led to the shooting in the first place, we do not know,” he said. As of the time of reporting, the state police command had not yet issued an official statement.
A Palace and a Governor Already Under Siege This Year
Wednesday’s shooting is not the first time violence has struck close to Adeleke or the Ataoja’s palace in 2026. In June, gunmen allegedly stormed the same palace and opened fire, in what the Ataoja later described as an assassination attempt against him personally. “The gunmen came into the palace with the intention of killing me,” the monarch said, adding that he escaped unharmed but that some of his aides did not. Governor Adeleke publicly blamed that attack on thugs he said were sponsored by the All Progressives Congress (APC), a claim the party’s leadership in Osogbo rejected.
That same June period saw a wider wave of election-season violence in Osun. Adeleke’s campaign convoy was reportedly engaged in a shootout with rival party supporters while returning from Ede, with thugs later sighted shooting sporadically in various parts of Osogbo; three people were injured and taken to hospital, and the governor and the APC campaign council traded blame over who was responsible. Separately, the Accord party’s Osogbo Local Government chairman, Asimiyu Ajibola, survived a shooting in early June and was hospitalised.
Why Political Violence Keeps Following Osun’s Election Season, and Who Pays the Price
The immediate motive behind Wednesday’s shooting has not been established, and no group has claimed responsibility. But the incident fits a broader pattern in Osun of armed thuggery clustering around high-profile political moments — campaign convoys, victory celebrations, and now the formal certification of a governorship win — where large crowds, heavy security presence, and unresolved political rivalries create the conditions for violence to erupt with little warning.
For residents of Osogbo, the immediate cost is fear: an event meant to mark a peaceful democratic transition — a governor receiving his Certificate of Return — instead turned into a shootout that damaged a royal palace and sent shoppers and bystanders scrambling. For the Ataoja himself, it is the second time this year his palace has come under fire, raising serious questions about the safety of a traditional institution meant to remain above the fray of party politics.
For Osun State as a whole, repeated episodes of election-linked gun violence undermine confidence that political transitions in the state can happen without bloodshed, and they raise the stakes for Adeleke’s second term, which now begins under the same shadow of insecurity that marked his campaign. For Nigeria more broadly, incidents like this feed a growing national concern about the use of armed thugs in electoral politics, and about how easily unregistered vehicles and firearms move around during politically sensitive events despite a heavy security presence.
What Needs to Change
Following the June attack on the palace, the Ataoja himself called on security agencies to thoroughly investigate the violence, bring perpetrators to justice, and restore peace to Osogbo and other affected communities. After the earlier convoy shootout, Governor Adeleke himself called on President Bola Tinubu and the Inspector-General of Police to intervene directly to stop the cycle of violence in the state.
Those calls appear not to have translated into lasting security on the ground, given that gunmen were again able to stage an armed confrontation at the same palace, during one of the most heavily guarded events of the governor’s calendar. A credible response would likely need to go beyond statements and include identifying and prosecuting those behind the earlier attacks, tighter vetting of vehicles and individuals around high-profile events, and a visible, sustained security presence in Osogbo that does not simply disappear once a particular news cycle ends.
Our Take
We think it says something troubling that a governor cannot walk out of a royal palace after formally receiving his mandate from voters without gunfire breaking out nearby. Whoever was behind Wednesday’s shooting, and whatever their target, the message it sends is the same one Osogbo residents have now heard twice this year: that political power in Osun still has to be exercised under the threat of the gun. Adeleke begins his second term with a real opportunity to make good on his own calls for justice and security — starting with answers about who is arming these hoodlums, and why nobody has been held accountable yet.
Published by Ejoh Caleb
