The candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the Edo State governorship election, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has been declared winner of the poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
He defeated his main rival and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, with 66,310 more votes.
Obaseki polled 319,483 votes as against Ize-Iyamu’s 253, 173 votes.
INEC’s Returning Officer, Prof. Kayode Soremekun, who declared Obaseki winner, said he had met all conditions required to be returned as governor elect for the state.
Obaseki had claimed an early lead in the poll, but half way into the election, the tie had been evenly posed with results appearing to be likely to swing in either candidate’s direction.
With results for nine of the 18 local government areas in the state collated around 11am, Obaseki had won five LGAs and polled 142,424 votes as against Ize-Iyamu’s four LGAs and 136,808 votes.
The results for the remaining nine local governments, however, saw the APC candidates lead widen, paving way for his victory.
The collation and announcement of the result was not without incident.
Hundreds of PDP supporters held a protest at the INEC office in Benin where the exercise was taking place.
The protesters alleged that results from their areas were manipulated and that there results were cancelled in areas that were PDP strongholds. They called on INEC to suspend collation of result from the areas, including Esan North-East LGA.
The protesters were, however, dispersed by the police with tear gas as the protest became more heated.
Also, some agents, including that of KOWA Party, called for the cancellation of the result, with others, including the APC candidate urging them to go to court.
Also, PDP’s agent, Chris Agbonwanegbe, refused to sign the result sheet, saying it was “rehearsed and produced”.
See collated results for all LGAs below:
Owan West
APC: 12,862
PDP: 10,132
Egor
APC: 26,177
PDP: 19,514
Esan North East
APC: 9,130
PDP: 16,220
Igueben
APC: 7,802
PDP: 7,560
Uhunmwode
APC: 10,911
PDP: 8,667
6 Esan South East
APC: 9,554
PDP: 11,466
Oredo
APC: 37,612
PDP: 30,492
Orhionmwon
APC: 15,262
PDP: 16,446
Esan West
APC 13,114
PDP 16,311
Owan East
APC: 21, 233
PDP: 12,889
Ovia North East
APC: 17,561
PDP: 13,141
Esan Central
APC: 9,781
PDP: 10,180
Etsako East
APC: 18,078
PDP: 12,552
Etsako Central
APC: 10,373
PDP: 8,827
Etsako West
APC: 29,199
PDP: 10,843
Ikpoba-Okha
APC: 33,469
PDP: 26,096
Akoko-Edo
APC: 24,545
PDP: 13,027
Ovia South-West
APC: 12,820
PDP: 8,810
Total:
APC: 319,483
PDP: 253,173
