The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced Monday Okpebholo, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, as the winner of Saturday’s gubernatorial election in Edo State after winning 11 out of the 18 LGAs of the state.
GTN reports that voters across 4,519 polling units in the 18 local government areas of Edo State turned out en masse on Saturday to elect a new governor to succeed Godwin Obaseki.
Announcing the result on Sunday, the Returning Officer for the election, Prof. Faruq Adamu Kuta, Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna, revealed that Okpebholo won the election after securing the highest number of votes.
He declared Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the election with 291,667 votes, while Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came second with a total of 247,274 votes. Meanwhile, Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party (LP) polled 22,763 votes to come third in third in the election.
He said, “I, Prof. Faruq Adamu Kuta, I certify that I’m the Returning officer for the Edo state governorship election held on September 21, 2024… That Okpebholo of the APC, having satisfied the requirements of the law, is hereby declared the winner of the election and returned elected.”
The election, one of the off-cycle polls in 2024, featured 17 candidates, consisting of 16 males and one female.
Meanwhile, before the election result was announced, PDP candidate Asue Ighodalo stated that the election could be the worst in Nigeria’s history, adding that more than 20 polling units across the state were affected by various discrepancies.
Similarly, the governor of the state, Godwin Obaseki, who was escorted out of the INEC premises by the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Frank Mba, in the early hours of Sunday, stated that his visit to the collation centre was to obtain first-hand information about the collation process after unsuccessful attempts to reach the state’s REC officer regarding reports that PDP agents were not allowed into the collation process.
