The results of the Saturday governorship elections have been certified by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), with Lagos State’s Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu declared the victor.
This was revealed on Monday in Lagos by Prof. Adenike Oladiji, Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, (FUTA) Akure, who is also the Returning Officer.
According to her, Sanwo-Olu received 762, 134 votes in total, defeating Mr. Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party who received 312, 329 votes.
Dr. Abdul-Azeez Adediran, the PDP candidate, finished third in the election with 62,449 votes, according to Oladiji.
A (800), AA (904), AAC (627), ADC (6,078), ADP (2833), APM (884), APP (259), BP (616), NNPP (1,583), NRM (340), SDP (1,746), YPP (461) and ZLP were the other political parties she named as receiving votes in the election (1,635).
Oladiji estimated that there were 7,060,195 registered voters statewide, 1,182,620 accredited voters, 1,173,631 votes cast, 1,155, 678 votes that were valid, and 17,953 votes that were invalid.
Oladiji said: “I declare that Sanwo-Olu Babajide Olusola of APC, having satisfied the requirements of the law by scoring 25 per cent in two-third of the local government areas in the state and also scoring the highest number of vote cast is hereby declared the winner and he is returned elected.”
The LP and PDP representatives who were invited by the returning officer to sign the poll’s results were not in attendance.
APC won in 19 Local Government Areas of the state, the LP won in one LGA while the PDP did not win.
The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Olusegun Agbaje, made a statement in which he noted that some of the accusations of manipulation made against him were untrue.
Agbaje, however, argued that such claims were not unexpected in a climate like ours and lamented the low voter turnout.
Mr. Olusegun Mobolaji, the chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) for Lagos state, gave his assessment of the process and criticised vote-buying, apathy, and the pockets of violence that were present in some areas of the state.
He urged the candidates to adopt a spirit of sportsmanship and sincerely accept the results of the election.
Mobolaji urged INEC to fix the issues for the upcoming elections.
Pastor Dayo Ekong, the Lagos State Chairman of the LP and the party’s State Collation Agent, had earlier called for the elections to be called off before leaving the collation centre.
Ekong condemned the high level of violence, attacks, ballot box snatching, disruption, disenfranchisement, and in some cases killing that marked the election, accusing Agbaje of disappointing the youth.
In the meantime, Mr. Fouad Oki, the APC’s State Collation Agent, expressed satisfaction with the election’s results and characterised the ruling party’s victory as an example of democracy in action.
