The keenly-contested November 11, 2023 Kogi State Governorship Election has finally produced a winner with
The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Usman Ododo, has been declared winner of Saturday’s closely contested Kogi State off season governorship poll.
Prof Johnson Urama, the Independent National Electoral Commission’s returning officer in Kogi State declared Ododo the winner at 10.25 pm Sunday.
“Ahmed Usman Ododo of APC, having satisfied the requirement of the law is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected,” Urama declared.
Ododo won with 446,237 votes, defeating his closest rival, Murtala Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), who scored 259,052, while Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polled 46,362 votes.
Results from the 21 local government areas (LGAs) in the state were collated late Sunday.
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.
Melaye and some civil rights groups had on Saturday, raised the alarm over “filled result sheets” in the Ogori/Magongo Local Government Area of the North Central state, Channels news reports. The PDP candidate also called for the suspension of the exercise over violence and vote buying. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) subsequently suspended election in nine wards in the local government area.
Late Sunday, INEC said fresh polls will be conducted in 59 polling units in the Ogori/Magongo Local Government Area of the state on November 18, 2023.
INEC, however, introduced a condition for the polls to be held in the 59 polling units, saying that “the decision to hold fresh elections is subject to the Returning Officer’s determination of the application of the Margin of Lead Principle”.
In his declaration late Sunday, Urama said the total number of Permanent Voter Cards in the affected polling units was put at 16,247, one that was insignificant to the about 200,000 votes gathered by the APC candidate ahead of his closest rival – Ajaka.
The margin of lead implied that the elections initially scheduled by INEC for next Saturday in the 59 polling units would no longer be held.
