The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Usman Ododo, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of Saturday’s governorship election.
Ododo, an ex-Auditor General of Local Government in Kogi under Governor Yahaya Bello, was the anointed candidate of the governor who is ending his double terms of eight years.
He scored a total of 446,237 votes and is “hereby declared the winner and is returned elected,” the chief returning officer announced at the INEC collation centre in Lokoja at about 10:24 p.m. on Sunday.
It was reported that 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.
Melaye had on Saturday, raised the alarm over “filled result sheets” in the Ogori/Magongo Local Government Area of the North Central state. The PDP candidate also called for the suspension of the exercise over violence and vote buying. INEC subsequently suspended election in nine wards in the local government area.
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.
