The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Kogi State, Usman Ododo has been declared winner of the November 11 poll.
Ododo’s victory was announced by the State Returning Officer, Prof Johnson Urama.
Urama made the declaration at 10:23 pm on Sunday.
“Ahmed Usman Ododo of APC, having satisfied the requirement of the law is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected,” he said.
Ododo won with 446,237 votes, defeating his closest rival, Murtala Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), who scored 259,052.
Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polled 46,362 votes.
For the other two states of Imo and Bayelsa states where elections held on Saturday, there was no major upset as INEC declared Governor Hope Uzodimma of the APC winner, while Governor Douye Diri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is in a comfortable lead after collation of results were adjourned till 12noon today with results from two LGAs – Brass and Southern Ijaw –yet to be collated.
As of yesterday, Diri extended his lead in results so far declared by INEC. With the final results from six out of the eight LGAs of the state, Diri is leading by 64,106 votes, after scoring a total of 137,909 votes from the six LGAs. He won in five LGAs, while his closest challenger, Timipre Sylva of APC, has won in only one LGA – Nembe.
But for conducting a less than satisfactory election, INEC has come under fire for going ahead to collate results despite instances of alleged over-voting in the election in Kogi.
Some stakeholders alleged that election results displayed on the IReV portal revealed cases of over-voting in Okehi, Adavi, and Okene LGAs. However, the Kogi State Collation Officer, Prof. Sani Mohammed, went ahead to uphold the results.
