The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Usman Ododo, has been declared the winner of the Kogi State Governorship election.
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The State Returning Officer, Prof Johnson Urama, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics) of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, announced Ododo as the winner at 10:23pm on Sunday.
“Ahmed Usman Ododo of APC, having satisfied the requirement of the law is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected,” Urama declared
Usman Ododo was the anointed candidate of the out going Governor Yaya Bello, under whom he served an an Auditor General of Local Government.
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.
On Sunday night before the declaration, 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.
The electoral umpire however, introduced a condition for the polls to be held in the 59 polling units, aying 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.
By implication, the initially scheduled by INEX for next Saturday in the 59 polling units would no longer hold, as the margin of lead is well above the total number of votes domiciled at those units.
The SDP candidate, Ajaka, and the PDP candidate, Melaye, have both rejected the outcome of the poll, expressing disappointment in INEC and security agencies which they accused of collusion with the ruling APC in Kogi.
Nnamdi Maduakor is a Writer, Investor and Entrepreneur
