Usman Ododo, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has been declared the winner of the Kogi state governorship election.
Ododo polled 446, 237 votes to defeat Murtala Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), who came second with 259,052 votes. Dino Melaye, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), scored 46,362 votes.
Johnson Urama, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) returning officer for Kogi, announced Ododo as the winner at 10:23 p.m. on Sunday.
Ododo, a former auditor general of local government in Kogi under Yahaya Bello, was anointed by the governor who is finishing his two-term of eight years.
Before the final results were announced, the APC said its candidate was “coasting to spectacular victory”.
In a statement, Felix Morka, APC national publicity secretary, asked INEC to protect the votes of the electorate in the state.
Morka said the “announced and uploaded results, so far, show Ododo maintaining a landslide lead in Kogi west and central, with a competitive showing in Kogi east”.
However, PDP’s Melaye called for the cancellation of the Kogi gubernatorial election.
He alleged that result sheets manifested even before the commencement of the accreditation of voters on Saturday.
“Yesterday in the five local governments of central senatorial district in Kogi state, there was no election. In the end surprisingly, accreditation was done manually, the BVAS was not used,” Melaye had said.
The SDP had also called for the cancellation of the election in the central senatorial district of Kogi.
David Edibo, an agent of the SDP, in a petition addressed to the INEC returning officer at the collation centre in Lokoja, said the party did not accept the results of the election in five LGAs of the state.
While INEC announced fresh elections in nine wards in Ogori Magongo LGA of the state due to cases of irregularities, the returning officer said the final results were not affected.
“PVCs collected in the cancelled areas is 16,247. It doesn’t affect the result significantly so we will go into the announcement of results,” he said.