The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Usman Ododo, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner of Saturday’s governorship election.
Mr Ododo scored a total of 446,237 votes and is “hereby declared the winner and is returned elected,” state returning officer Johnson Urama announced at the INEC collation centre in Lokoja at about 10:24 p.m. on Sunday.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr Ododo won in 13 of the 21 local government areas in the states.
INEC also declared the candidate of the SDP, Murtala Ajaka, as the runner-up with a total of 259,052 votes. He won in eight local governments.
Dino Melaye, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party scored 46,362 votes to take the third position. He did not win in any local government.
A total of 18 candidates took part in the election.
Sunday’s declaration made a nullity of INEC’s earlier announcement that supplementary elections would be held in dozens of polling units where irregularities were discovered.
SDP’s Ajaka rejects the result
Mr Ajaka of the SDP has rejected the results from the entire Kogi Central zone, alleging that the completion of result sheets ahead of voting cut across the entire district.
On Sunday night, Mr Urama, the INEC returning officer, said the total votes in the 59 affected polling units would not affect the final result of the election based on the victory margin of Mr Ododo. He, therefore, declared him the winner.
Premium Times
