The candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the November 11, 2023 governorship election in Kogi State, Usman Ododo, has been declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The INEC Returning Officer for the election, Professor Johnson Ugamadu, made the declaration on Sunday.
Ugamadu, also the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria Nsukka, declared at about 10:23pm: “Usman Ododo of the APC, having satisfied the requirement of the law by scoring the majority of the votes cast in the November 11 off-cycle governorship election, is hereby returned elected.”
To win the election, Ododo polled 446,237 votes to beat his closest rival, Alhaji Muritala Yakubu Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party, who scored 259,052 votes.
Ugamadu said the total valid votes was 782,289 out of the 791,890 total votes cast during the election, which recorded 9,601 rejected votes.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the APC candidate won in 13 LGAs: including Okehi, Ogori-Magongo, Ajaokuta, Okene, Mopamuro, Kabba-Bunu, Adavi, Yagba West, Yagba East, Lokoja, Kogi/Koton-Karfe, Bassa and Ijemu.
Ajaka of the SDP on the other hand won in Dekina, Ofu, Igalamela-Odolu, Ankpa, Idah and Ibaji Local Government Areas.
Though INEC had earlier announced that there could be fresh elections in 59 Polling Units, the outcome of the election has nullified that as the number of total votes in the affected area is not more than the margin between Ododo and Ajaka.
While the total number of votes in the affected polling units has been put at about 16,000, the margin between the APC and SDP candidates is close to 200,000.
Speaking to newsmen shortly after the results were announced, the agent of the SDP, Ohemoyi David, expressed disappointment in the way and manner INEC went ahead to announce the result in spite of some abnormalities witnessed during the election.
David said: “We have written a petition to INEC on the election, yet it went ahead to announce the result even when it has pledged to conduct supplementary election in some LGAs on November 18.
“We shall definitely challenge this action in court.”
Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State expressed gratitude to the residents for giving Ododo the opportunity to take over from him on January 27, 2024.
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He also thanked INEC, security operatives, CSOs and the media for seeing that the election was a success.
He assured the public that Ododo would not fail the state in continuing with the development efforts to transform the state.
Ododo, in a smile, thanked the people for counting him worthy to lead them in the next phase of leadership.
The governor-elect declared himself as “the people’s servant”, who is ready to serve them faithfully for the growth and development of Kogi State.