Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
Afrobeats superstar Davido has made a stunning revelation about the intense pressure he faced during the Osun State governorship election, claiming that Nigeria's Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote personally called him to delete his social media posts as the election results were being collated. The singer, who played a high-profile role in monitoring the poll and rallying support for his uncle, Governor Ademola Adeleke, also alleged that political opponents brought a staggering N110 billion into the state in an attempt to influence the outcome of the election.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with News Central TV on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, Davido recounted how he refused to back down despite calls from some of the country's most powerful figures. "I heard the Senate President was trying to call the collation centre… They were calling me to delete. I said sorry o. You guys have literally just gone against my uncle… I can't delete anything," Davido said. He also revealed that Aliko Dangote reached out to him directly with a similar request. "Uncle Aliko called me too. I said, 'Uncle, I'm not deleting until the INEC announcement,'" the singer stated.
Davido alleged that the scale of the financial inducement deployed by the opposition was unprecedented. "I just confirmed today. They spent N110 billion. I'm coming from somewhere where we had an insider who was sending us… If you see the cash these people brought in. If they had gotten away with that election, Nigeria is finished. Because the blueprint for election will now be violence and money," he declared. The singer's accusation points directly at the All Progressives Congress (APC), which he claimed spent the massive sum on vote-buying in a desperate attempt to unseat his uncle.
Davido emphasised that his camp refused to engage in the same tactics. "We didn't spend a dime on election day. All we could do was just pray that these people take their money and vote for us," he said. He also credited the people of Osun with protecting the integrity of the election, describing how ordinary citizens stood up against attempts to manipulate the process. "It got to a point where it was the Osun people that were beating the people that were trying to seize ballots. People are tired," he added.
The singer's involvement in the Osun election was deeply personal, as his uncle, Governor Ademola Adeleke, was the candidate of the Accord Party seeking re-election. Davido described the victory as a triumph of popular support over financial and political pressure. "My uncle should be an example to all other government officials and governors. When you stand by the people, the people will stand by you," he said. The governor ultimately won the election with 511,067 votes, defeating the APC candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, who scored 444,815 votes.
The New Central TV interview also shed light on the timeline of the pressure Davido faced. The singer revealed that he had been actively tracking the election results on the INEC Result Viewing (IREV) portal when he noticed a halt in the upload of polling unit results. "When the election started, the results were being uploaded every 30 minutes... When it got to 2-3 AM, INEC didn't update the portal for 5 hours, and I already knew what was going on. They were trying to manipulate, but when you're losing by 60-70,000 votes, it's very hard to manipulate that," Davido explained. It was this delay that prompted his social media posts calling out INEC, which led to the intervention calls from Akpabio and Dangote.
The allegations have sparked intense debate across Nigeria, with many questioning the influence of money in the country's electoral process. Davido's refusal to delete his posts, despite pressure from the Senate President and one of Africa's most powerful businessmen, has been widely praised as a demonstration of courage and commitment to democratic accountability. His revelation that N110 billion was allegedly spent on vote-buying has also renewed calls for urgent reforms to protect the integrity of Nigeria's elections.
As the dust settles on the Osun governorship election, Davido's account has added a new layer to the ongoing conversation about the state of Nigeria's democracy. His insistence that "when you stand by the people, the people will stand by you" serves as a powerful reminder that, in the end, the will of the electorate cannot be bought. The singer's uncle, Governor Ademola Adeleke, has now secured a second term, and the victory has been widely interpreted as a rejection of financial and political manipulation. For Davido, the battle was personal, but the implications are national.
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