The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Raheem Olawuyi, was on Saturday declared the winner of the Ekiti/Irepodun/Isin/Oke-Ero Federal Constituency bye-election held across the four councils in Kwara State.
The Returning Officer for the election, Prof. Abimbola Adesoji, while declaring the result at the Irepodun Local Government Secretariat in Omu-Aran, said Olawuyi polled 21,236 to emerge winner.
He defeated his closest rival, Saheed Damilare of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 18,095.
Abimbola, who is of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, said Olawuyi, having scored the highest number of votes in the election, was declared winner.
Other contestants in the election were Femi Ona-Ara of Labour Party, Ajadi Olayemi of Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN) as well as Olaniyan Ayorinde of Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN).
Abimbola gave the total number of total registered voters as collated as 168, 707, accredited voters as 41,185, the total valid votes as 39,599, total number of rejected votes as 1, 331 and total number of votes cast as 40,930.
Some cancellations arising from snatching of ballot boxes and over voting were reportedly experienced in three polling units in Irepodun Local Government Area.
The affected units as listed by the Presiding Officer in charge of the council included Registration Area (RA) 02 of Esie-Ijan Ward where two ballot boxes were reportedly snatched and 955 number of registered voters lost.
Other areas were Oro Ward 1 RA 02, Polling Unit 01 where a case of ballot snatching was recorded and a total of 297 registered voters were affected and over voting in Oro Ward 2 RA 10 Polling Unit 01 with 474 registered votes lost.
Election cancellation was also recorded in Ile Apaasin RA 04 Polling Unit in Isin Local Government where only 59 voters were accredited but turned in 377 votes.
Some Independent National Electoral Officers were confirmed to have been attacked and had wounds in the process.
The declaration of the results was witnessed by notable officials that included the Kwara State Commissioner of Police, Mr Bolaji Fafowora, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) from Kwara State, Malam Garuba Madami, as well as his Imo and Lagos counterparts, Mr Emeka Nzeonu and Mr Sam Olumeko respectively.
In a related development, INEC also declared Alhaji Abubakar Kusada of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the bye-election into the House of Representatives in Katsina State.
The election was conducted in the Kankiya/Kusada/Ingawa Federal constituency on Saturday.
Kusada was the speaker of Katsina State House of Assembly before his election.
Prof Adedayo Hamza, the Returning Officer who announced the result on Saturday in Kankiya, said Kusada scored 48,518 votes to emerge winner.
Alhaji Abdussamad Yusuf of PDP came second with 20,193 votes, while Nasiru Kankiya of the Peoples Redemption Party scored 1,810 votes as second runner-up.
Abdullahi Umar of the Yes Electorate Solidarity (YES) got 221 votes.
According to Hamza, the total number of registered voters in the constituency is 193,904, while the number of accredited voters was 74,242.
The number of valid votes cast was 70,742 and rejected votes 2,331.The total number of votes cast was 73,073.
Mr Festus Okoye, INEC National Commissioner, advised political parties to intensify voter education and management of polling units.
He commended the political parties, security agencies, mediamen and other stakeholders for the peaceful conduct of the bye election.
