The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Mr Dapo Abiodun, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), winner of Saturday’s governorship polls in Ogun State.
The state Returning Officer for the governorship poll, Prof. Idowu Olayinka, announced in Abeokuta at about 12. 45 a.m. on Monday that Abiodun scored a total of 241, 670 votes to clinch victory.
Olayinka, who is Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan, explained that Abiodun beat his closest rival, Mr Adekunle Akinlade of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) who came second with 222, 153 votes.
He said that the candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) came third with 110, 422 votes while the Peoples Democratic Party Candidate, Sen. Buruji Kashamu, who scored 70,290 votes, was fourth.
A breakdown of the results on local government basis as announced by local government collation officers showed that Abiodun won in 11 council areas and scored over 25 per cent of total votes cast in 16 out of 20 local governments in the state.
The councils won by Abiodun are Ijebu-Ode , Odogbolu, Odeda, Ijebu North-East, Sagamu, Abeokuta – South, Ijebu-East.
Others are Remo- North, Ogun Waterside, Obafemi-Owode and Ikenne,
Akinlade of the APM won in six council areas which are Abeokuta – North, Egbado- South, Ewekoro, Ipokia, Ifo and Ado Odo- Ota.
Isiaka of the ADC won in Imeko- Afon and Egbado-North local governments while Kashamu of the PDP won in the Ijebu-North local government area.
According to Olayinka, the total number of registered voters was 2, 375, 003 while the total number of accredited voters was 708, 807.
He said that the number of valid votes was 680,947 while 20,969 votes were rejected.
Olayinka added that the total number of votes cast was 701,916.
The Returning Officer, who noted that the margin of lead between Abiodun and Akinlade was 19,517 votes said that the figure is more than the total cancelled votes which he puts at 7,100.
In Niger State, INEC declared Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of APC winner of the election.
The result was announced on Sunday night in Minna at the State Collation Centre by the returning officer, Prof. Angela Miri.
Miri, who is the Vice Chancellor, Federal University, Lokoja, said Bello scored 526,412 votes, while Umar Nasko of PDP polled 298,065 votes.
“Abubakar Sani Bello of APC, having satisfied the requirement of the law and scored the highest votes is hereby returned elected and declared the winner of the March 9, Saturday governorship election in the state,” she said.
Niger state has 2,387,734 voters registered. But 925,518 voters were accredited for the governorship election, with total valid votes put at 900,817. The number of votes cast was 920,480, while 19,609 votes were rejected.
Prof.Samuel Egwu, Niger Resident Electoral Commissioner(REC), commended stakeholders for the peaceful conduct of the election in the state.
He lauded the Niger State Police Command and other security agencies for providing the ambience to enable a peaceful and transparent poll.
In Akwa Ibom, INEC declared Governor Udom Emmanuel of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winner of the election.
The Returning Officer, Prof. Faraday Orumwense, Vice Chancellor, University of Benin, who announced the result in Uyo on Monday, said that Emmanuel won in all the 31 local government areas of the state.
Orumwense said Emmanuel was re-elected governor having polled 519,712 votes. His main challenger, Mr Nsima Ekere of the All Progressives Congress (APC), polled 171,978 votes.
Mr Emmanuel Nwankpa of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) polled 2547 votes and Mr Ekene Uzodinma of the United Peoples Party (UPP) polled 1,476 votes.
Orumwense said that there were 2,119,727 registered voters in the state, with 720,064 voters accredited. He said 696,245 valid votes were recorded, while 15,792 votes were declared void.
He noted that the election was keenly contested, saying that 50 political parties contested for the governorship election in the state.
Governor Aminu Masari was also declared winner of the election in Katsina State.
The Returning Officer for the governorship election, Prof Abdullahi Abdu Zuru, Vice Chancellor, Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto, said that Masari polled 1,178,864 votes to defeat PDP’s Sen. Yakubu Lado, who scored 488,621 votes in the election.
He said that the state had a total of 3.2 million registered voters.
According to him, the total accredited voters were 1,173,780, while the votes cast were 1,720,638 and 37,593 votes were rejected.
The Returning Officer said that “the APC candidate, Aminu Masari, having satisfied the requirements of the law and scored highest number of votes is hereby declared winner and returned elected.”
Masari defeated the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Sen Yakubu Lado and 16 other candidates in all the 34 Local Government Areas of the state.
The PDP had already rejected the results announced by INEC.
PDP state Chairman, Alhaji Salisu Majigiri, alleged that the results declared by INEC did not tally with the low turnout of voters and the results in custody of their agents.
He said that the party would challenge the results through legal means.
In Cross River State, Governor Benedict Ayade has been re-elected for the next four years.
Announcing the result on Sunday in Calabar, the State Returning Officer, Prof. Akim Ibhadode, said Ayade, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won the election with 381,484 votes.
The All Progressive Congress (APC) scored 131,161 votes while social Democratic Party (SDP) had 4,818 votes.
Ibhadode explained that the state has 1,486,026 registered voters, out of which 542,115 were accredited for the election while valid votes cast were 522,309, rejected votes 11,499 and the total votes cast was 533,808.
The result sheet was signed by all party agents present and the Cross River Commissioner of Police, Austin Agbonlahor.
However, the collation agent of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prince Celestine Awor, alleged that the election in Obudu Local Government Area was marred with irregularities.
“Other political parties are not allowed to participate in the election, there was buying of Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) from the electorates and massive thumb printing by the PDP in a secret locations,” he alleged.
He said that the APC has evidence and would petition the result from Obudu.
In his response, Ibhadode said the result would be accepted since the collation officer from the local government had reported that the election was peaceful in the area, but added that the APC can go ahead with its petition if it was not satisfied and that it would be looked into.
In Nasarawa State, INEC declared Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the election.
Prof. Abdullahi Bala, Returning Officer for the election, announced Sule as governor-elect on Monday in Lafia after the collation of results from the 13 local government areas of the state.
Bala said the APC candidate polled a total of 327,229 votes to defeat other opponents in the election.
According to him, Mr David Ombugadu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) scored 184,281 votes, while Mr Labaran Maku of the All Progressives Grand Alliance polled a total of 132,784 votes at the election.
He said 686,303 voters were accredited and 681,400 cast their ballots during the election.
Bala further explained that 670,879 of the votes cast were valid while 10,521 were rejected.
The result indicated that APC won in 11 out of the 13 local government areas of the state while Maku of APGA and Umar Aliyu Doma of Zenith Labour Party won in Nasarawa Eggon and Doma local government areas respectively.
Meanwhile, the collation agent of the PDP, Yakubu Dauda, refused to sign the result.
According to him, there were several complaints brought by his party to INEC over the conduct of the exercise but were ignored.
On his part, Aliyu Bello, the APC agent, said the outcome of the election was not surprising given the track record of the party in the state under Governor Umaru Al-Makura.
“The result of the election is a payback by the people of the state for the great work done by Al-Makura and the APC”, he said.
