The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on
Monday, November 18th declared the All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship
candidate, Yahaya Bello as the winner of the governorship election in Kogi
State on Saturday.
Bello polled a massive 406,222 votes to defeat his
contestant, Musa Wada of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who scored 189,704
votes to emerge second. With the result, Bello has been re-elected for a second
term in office.
INEC’s Returning Officer for the election and
Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Professor Ibrahim
Garuba, said Bello had been declared winner, having scored the highest number
of votes during the poll conducted on Saturday.
Umar said the total number of cancelled is 149,576 and that
the margin of lead is 216,518. Also, Mrs. Natasha Akpoti of the Social
Democratic Party SDP came third in the exercise with 9,482. INEC had on Sunday
evening suspended further collation of results till today.
19 Local Governments had been collated yesterday while
results for Ibaji and Lokoja were being awaited. When collation resumed this
morning at about 9.30am, the Returning Officer for Dekina made clarifications
on why votes were cancelled in certain poling units in the Local
Government.
After the clarifications, Garbadeen Olugbenga, the Returning
Officer for Ibaji gave result of the LG. According to him, the APC won in the
Local Government having polled 12,682 votes while the PDP polled 10,594 votes.
He said the total registered voters were 66,675 but that only 25,598 of them
were accredited, as the total votes cast in the area were 25,258. In Lokoja,
the Returning Officer said there were 137,301 registered voters, but that only
34,897 were accredited. In Ibaji, APC scored 19,451 votes while PDP garnered
11,059 votes.
During the collation, INEC announced cancellation of votes
in many Polling Units and many Local Governments across the state. Ballot box
snatching, violence, over-voting and fighting were among reasons preferred for
the cancellation. 25 political parties participated in the election.
Meanwhile the PDP and Wada at media briefing yesterday
rejected the result, describing it as a ruse that would be challenged at the
tribunal. The party alleged widespread violations of the Electoral Act. Also,
the party, through its agent, Capt. Joe Agada refused to sign the final copy of
the result as a protest against its outcome.
