•APC wins Katsina, Gombe, set for victory in Borno, Benue as PDP takes A’Ibom

•Kwankwaso, Ganduje’s men in tight race, Rhodes-Vivour rejects Lagos results

•Oyo, Lagos Speakers re-elected, APC takes 22 Ondo seats, PDP, 25 in Osun

The Independent National Electoral Commission on Sunday declared Governors Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), Muhammadu Yahaya (Gombe), Mai Mala Buni (Yobe) and AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq (Kwara) the winners of Saturday’s governorship elections.

Also, the Peoples Democratic Party candidate in Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Eno; Dr Dikko Radda of the Katsina State All Progressives Congress and his counterpart in Jigawa State, Namadi Dammodi, emerged as the governors-elect.

The APC candidate in the Sokoto State governorship election, Ahmad Sokoto, similarly emerged as the governor-elect in the state, while Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum was set for victory having won the 22 local government areas declared so far in the state on Sunday.

There were also strong indications that the Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, would be re-elected as he emerged victorious in 14 out of the 19 LGAs results declared as of 10.21 pm on Sunday, while his closest rival, Sadique Abubakar of the APC won five local government areas.

Similarly, the APC candidate in Benue, Rev Fr. Hyacinth Alia, is currently leading his opponents in the results so far declared by the electoral commission.

Makinde of the PDP was declared the winner of the governorship poll in Oyo State after scoring 563,756 votes to beat his closest rival, Teslim Folarin of the All Progressive Congress scored 256,685 votes.

Adebayo Adelabu of the Accord Party scored 38,357 votes. Makinde, in an interview with newsmen, shortly after he won re-election said he was overwhelmed by the show of love showered on him by the people of the state.

A statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Taiwo Adisa, said the governor was joined by his wife, Tamunominimin and flanked by family members, friends and associates while celebrating the victory at his residence located in the Ikolaba area of Ibadan.

He thanked the good people of the state for the the confidence reposed in his administration and his ability to lead them.

Makinde speaks Makinde said, “The incoming administration which is tagged Omituntun 2.0, is a film that will be a lot better, sweeter and more effective when compared to Omituntun 1.0.

“Right now, I am just overwhelmed. I want to thank the good people of the state for the confidence they have reposed in this administration and my ability to lead them.’’

Governor Abiodun secured a second term in office after polling 276,298 votes to defeat his PDP opponent, Oladipupo Adebutu, who scored 262,383 votes and 12 other candidates.

The returning officer of the governorship election in Ogun State, Prof. Kayode Adebowale declared Abiodun at the collation centre of the commission in the state.

According to him, the total number of registered voters 2,688,305, while accredited voters were 666,406.

Adebowale said a total of 645,133 votes were valid while 18,835 votes were rejected out of the 663,968 total votes cast.

Sanwo-Olu was re-elected as he has polled the highest number of votes in the governorship election held on Saturday. The results were announced on Sunday at INEC’s collation centre in Yaba, Lagos.

The governor was declared winner with 762,134 votes while his closest rival, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party, polled 312,329 votes. The candidate of the PDP, Olajide Adediran, came third with 62,449 votes.

Sanwo-Olu re-elected

Sanwo-Olu won in 19 LGAs, while Rhodes-Vivour emerged victorious in Amuwo Odofin LGA, as announced by the Returning Officer, Adenike Oladiji, who is the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State.

Earlier, Oladiji said, “This place is a collation centre and what that then means is that we will be collating results as they have come from the different LGAs from the polling units.

“What that means is we do not generate results and that means we are given to influence anything here. We only collate what comes to us and to ensure that we do it correctly, what we do is to test the correctness of values as the results are announced.”

So far, the total number of votes cast was 1,123,302, and the number of rejected votes was 16,798, and the total number of valid votes was 1,107,248

In his address, the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr Olusegun Agbaje, urged citizens not to see an election as a the do-or-die affair, adding that he received a number of threats during the election.

He said, “It is very strange that at this time in Nigeria, we still see elections as a do-or-die affair but elections should not be seen as do-or-die affairs.

“Our role is to midwife elections and we expect politicians to collaborate with us to do a good job. The issue of snatching ballot boxes is not good at all. Even if it is happening, it shouldn’t happen in Lagos.”

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Kwara gov wins

In Kwara State, the state governor and APC candidate garnered 273,424 votes to beat his closest rival, Alhaji Yaman Abdullahi of the PDP scored 155,490 votes in the election.

Announcing the results at the INEC office, Ilorin on Sunday, the returning officer for the state governorship election and Vice-Chancellor, University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Prof Isaac Itodo, said Abdulrazaq won in all the 16 local government councils in the state, including Ilorin South, Ilorin West, Ilorin East, Offa, Oyun, Ifelodun, Irepodun, Oke-Ero, Ekiti, Patigi, Edu, Kaiama and Baruten Local Governments.

Itodo disclosed that 470,771 voters were accredited for the election while 460,497 votes were declared valid and over 4,000 votes were invalid.

In Gombe, Yahaya won a second term in office polling 342,821 to overwhelm his closest challenger and PDP candidate, Muhammad Barde, who scored 233,131 and the NNPP’s Khamisu Mailantarki recorded 19,861.

The state returning officer, Prof Maimuna Waziri, who doubles as the Vice Chancellor of Federal University Gashua, Yobe State, declared the results at the collation centre on Sunday.

Our correspondent reports that Barde won two LGAs while the governor cleared nine others to emerge victorious.

“That Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya of the All Progressives Congress, having satisfied the requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes is hereby declared the winner and returned elected,” Waziri said.

According to the returning officer, Gombe has 1,575,794 registered voters but 618, 231 were accredited for the polls.

Announcing the result of the election at the INEC headquarters in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State on Sunday, the state Returning Officer and Vice Chancellor of Maritime University, Okerenkoko, Delta State, Prof Emmanuel Adigio said Eno amassed 356,346 votes to defeat the APC and Young Progressives Party candidates had 129,602 and 136,262 votes, respectively.

The New Nigeria Peoples Party followed with 125,09 votes while the Labour Party polled 4,746 votes.

Adagio said, “Pastor Umo Eno of the PDP having satisfied the requirements of the law is here declared the winner of the the governorship election in Akwa Ibom State.”

Our correspondent reports that the PDP candidate won in 29 out of 31 local government areas of the state while the YPP candidate, Senator Bassey Albert won in only two governments.

The local governments won by the governor-elect include Udung Uko, Uruan, Ini, Esit Eket, Ikot Abasi, Ikot Ekpene, Etim Ekpo and 22 others while Akpan won in Ikono and Ibiono Ibom LGAs, respectively.

However, the YPP party agent, Mr Kelvin Umoh rejected the results, alleging widespread violence and intimidation that allegedly led to the killing of his party supporters.

Umoh said, “It will be wrong for me to append my signature to the results sheets because there was widespread violence and intimidation.”

But the PDP agent, Uwem Okoko, commended the INEC for the improvement witnessed in the Saturday polls and also thanked the voters for voting for the PDP in the state.

In Katsina State, the APC governorship candidate, Radda, emerged as the governor-elect after being victorious in 33 of the 34 LGAs in the state

The PDP candidate, Senator Yakubu Lado won in Kankara LGA.

The results were declared at the governorship election collation centre in Katsina in the presence of the returning officer, Prof Muazu Abubakar.

According to Abubakar, Radda polled 859892 to emerge as the winner of the election. The PDP candidate, Senator Yakubu Lado, polled 486260.

Buni re-elected Also, the Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni was re-elected.

He won in all 17 local government areas of the state with a total of 317,113 votes.

The candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Sharif Abdulahi, came a distant second with a total score of 104,259 votes.

Announcing the results in Damaturu, the Returning Officer for the governorship election and the VC of the Federal University of Kashere, Gombe state, Prof. Umar Pate put the accredited voters at 459,492, valid votes 444,567 and total votes cast, 457,781.

In Benue, the APC governorship candidate, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia is comfortably leading in the results so far announced.

As of the time of filing this report at 6 pm on Sunday, the results of 16 of the 23 local government areas had been released by INEC.

The Catholic priest is comfortably leading in 12 local government areas with a wide margin while the PDP candidate, Titus Uba won in four LGAs.

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So far, Alia has polled 310,817 against Uba’s 141,329 with a margin of 169,488.

Meanwhile, the final result of the governorship the election may not be announced by INEC following the postponement of the election in Kwande LGA.

Elections could not be held in the local government on Saturday due to the errors on the ballot papers meant for one of the states constituencies.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof Sam Egwu had said that election would be held at a later date to be announced by INEC.

The REC, however, said that the winner of the governorship may be declared ‘’on theoretical probability if the margin of win is greater than the number of total registered voters from Kwande.’’

Our correspondent reliably gathered that Kwande LGA with 15 registration areas has 172,294 registered voters.

The councils include Apa, Gwer West, Logo, Ado, Gwer East, Agatu, Obi, Ukum, Tarka, Buruku, Katsina-Ala, Guma, Gboko, Ohimini, Ushongo and Ogbadibo.

Rivers PDP

In Rivers State, the PDP is leading in 17 of the 23 local government areas from the results of the governorship election so far collated.

The main opposition party in the state, the APC, maintained a distant second closely followed by the Social Democratic Party and the Labour Party.

The state Returning Officer for the election and Vice-Chancellor, Federal University of Petroleum, Effurum, Delta State, Prof Akpofura Rim-rukeh, received the 17 LGA collated results from the various collation officers and electoral officers.

At 6 pm on Sunday, Rim-rukeh adjourned the results’ collation till Monday (today) after failing to get more results from the outstanding councils.

He stated, “If there are no other results ready from the other local governments I will close collation for today. Collation of results will resume on Monday.”

The LGAs so far collated are Tai, Opobo Nkoro LGA, Gokana LGA, Ogu/Bolo, Eleme, Ikwerre, Oyigbo, Etche, Khana, Andoni, Bonny, Ahoada East and Okrika.

The others are Abua-Odual, Emuoha and Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni, respectively.

Meanwhile, the New Nigeria Peoples Party and the APC are running neck-to-neck in the governorship election result declared so far in Kano.

The opposition party was earlier displaced by the ruling APC but a few hours later, Abba Kabir Yusuf of the NNPP was leading the APC candidate, Nasir Gawuna with 3,037 votes.

While Yusuf polled 345,735, Gawuna was trailed with 342,698 votes in 20 LGAs.

But at 8.30 pm, when the result from the Bichi Local Government Area was announced, Gawuna upstaged his NNPP counterpart.

Gawuna polled 484,877 votes while Yusuf was trailing with 473,737 votes with the Bichi LGA result.

At 10pm when the result of the 36th LGA, Bebeji, was announced as the collation centre, the NNPP was ahead of the APC.

Yusuf polled a total of 711,685, while Gawuna 680,808. Results of eight LGAs were being expected late Monday night.

The APC candidate in the Sokoto State governorship election, Ahmad Sokoto, emerge as the governor-elect in the just concluded election.

According to the results declared so far in 21 LGAs, the APC candidate is leading with a margin of about 43,228 votes against the PDP’s, Sa’idu Ubandoma.

In Adamawa State, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri is in an early lead by a margin of 39,037 votes from results so far collated from 13 LGAs out of the 21 council areas in the state.

Fintiri, who is seeking re-election for a second term, went to the polls against Senator Aishatu Binani, from the rival APC.

She is seeking to make history as the first elected female governor in the country.

The PDP polled a total of 235,379 votes while the APC has an aggregate of 214,043.

The results showed the PDP has won Guyuk, Jada, Gombi, Shelleng, Demsa, Lamurde, Girei, Hong and Madagali LGAs.

The APC on the other hand triumphed in Ganye, Mubi North, Mayo Belwa and Maiha LGAs, according to the results announced by the collation officers in the presence of the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Yunusa Hudu and Prof. Mohammed Mele, the state collation officer.

In Niger, the APC is set to produce the governor as its candidate, Umar Bago is in an early lead going by the results so far declared which indicated that he is leading in 12 out of the 14 LGAs.

However, his PDP rival, Isah Kantigi won three local government areas.

Fifteen out of the 25 local government areas in the state have been collated while the remaining 10 are yet to be announced.

Bago won in Tafa, Gurara, Paikoro, Bida, Chanchaga, Lapai, Rafi, Magama, Agaie, Paikoro, Bosso, and Suleja while the PDP candidate won in Munya, Lavun and Edati local government areas.

In Kaduna, the election is still close to call but the PDP is leading in six of the seven councils so far released.

So far, the PDP is leading in Kaura, Giwa, Sanga, Kajuru, Jaba, and Makarfi councils, while the APC has the upper hand in Ikara LGA.

The situation is the same in Plateau State where the APC and PDP have each won six LGAs.

So far, the APC has bagged Jos East, Kanke, Pankshin, Shendam, Wase and Kanam, the APC on the other hand came top in Barkin Ladi, Bassa, Langtang South, Langtang North, Mikang and Riyom.

The returning officers for the governorship election in Sokoto State, Professor Armayau Hamisu, who is also the Vice Chancellor, Federal University, Dutsinma, Katsina State announced Aliyu after collating all the twenty-three local governments area results at about 10 pm on Sunday.

He explained that the APC candidate defeated his closest challenger and the ruling party in the state, the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Sa’idu Umar Ubandoma with a vote margin of 49,029.

Ahmed Aliyu the candidate of the APC polls a total number of 453,661 votes to defeat the PDP who gained a total number of 404,632 votes.

As declared by the local government Collation officers of INEC in the governorship election in Enugu, Labour Party candidate and Peoples Democratic Party, Chijioke Edeoga and Peter Mbah respectively won eight councils each.

However, Edeoga has rejected the result of the governorship polls as announced by the collation officer from Nkanu East Local Government Area.

Edeoga, who spoke at a press conference Sunday night, asked INEC, to cancel the result in line with its guidelines.

He alleged that there were manipulations of the electoral process, especially over-voting and voter suppression.

The LP candidate said: “In most parts of Enugu State, the election was marred by obvious irregularities, but I want to focus specifically on Nkanu East Local Government Area.

“Nkanu East has produced two different results. The result that my agent signed, which is available, is far different from the result which was taken to INEC headquarters and is now a subject of controversy.

“I want to state categorically that the position of Nkanu East Local Government is that the result of Nkanu East cannot stand; it stands against reason, stands against common sense. It stands against the records available of what is the voting strength of Nkanu East and it stands against the number of voters that were accredited and the number of PVCs that were collected.

“So, the result of Nkanu East is not acceptable; it is not acceptable to the Labour Party and I call for its total cancellation so that the due processes should be followed. At any point in time when the number of PVCs collected and accreditation do not tally with the number of votes, one is enjoined to stay in action and cross-check.

“Of course, you know that Udenu LGA, the electoral officer was whisked away and the results completely altered when she went into the custody of INEC headquarters. What was collated in Udenu, that was going to be announced, is far different from what was announced when she was taken away.

“In virtually all the polling units, what was recorded is far different from what was uploaded. The PVCs collected and the accredited voters have no relationship at all with the votes ascribed to people.

“We are going to respond comprehensively, but I want to state categorically that the Labour Party and its governorship candidate in Enugu State do not accept the result of Nkanu East and we call for its cancellation. It is a flagrant abuse of the electoral process and such brigandage should not be allowed to stay; it is very injurious to every effort we are making to build a democratic system that is representative of the people’s will,” he said.

In Jigawa State, INEC declared the APC candidate, Alhaji Namadi Dammodi, as the winner of the 2023 governorship election in the state.

Announcing the result, the INEC Collation officer in the state, the Vice Chancellor Federal University Birnin Kebbi, Prof. Zayyanu Umar Birnin, Dammodi scored 618,449 to emerge winner and newly elected governor of Jigawa state.

His closest rivals of Peoples of the PDP, Mustapha Sule, scored 368,726 votes and Ibrahim Aminu Ringim of the NNPP who 37,156 votes.

Umar stated, “That Namadi Umar Alhaji of All Progressive Congress having satisfied the requirements of the law and scored the highest votes is hereby declared the winner and returned elected,” he said.
(Source:The Punch)