Biodun Oyebanji, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been declared winner of the Ekiti State governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Prof Kayode Adebowale, the Returning Officer for the election who is the Vice Chancellor, the University of Ibadan announced the results.
The results as collated showed that APC scored 187,057 votes to defeat its closest rival, the SDP, which garnered 82,211 votes, the PDP, which got 67,457 votes and 13 other parties which participated in Saturday’s governorship election.
Out of the 360,753 votes cast, the total valid votes in the election were 351,865.
Adebowale in this regard said, “Oyebanji, having scored the highest number of votes is hereby declared the winner and returned elected as the governor-elect of Ekiti State”
In the common features of Nigeria’s elections, cases of irregularities were reported hence the agent of SDP, Owoseeni Ajayi, did not sign the forms for the votes cast, just as the agent of the ADP, said, “Instead of having polling centres, what we have in Ekiti are vote-buying centres”.
Meanwhile, Punch reported that the exercise as monitored across the state revealed that in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, residents trooped to the streets to celebrate the victory in the dead of the night. At the Government House in the Oke Ayoba area of the town, other APC governors, led by the state governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, monitored the exercise.
Similarly, in Ikogosi-Ekiti, Ekiti West Local Government Area, where Oyebanji hails from, residents also began celebrating the victory of their kinsman at the poll.
Also in Ikere-Ekiti, where Oyebanji’s running mate, Mrs Monitade Afuye, hails from, residents also began celebration as the results were announced by the respective local government Returning Officers.
In different parts of the state also, some members of the ruling party celebrated the victory, describing it as well-deserved.
However, it was observed that prior to the announcement of the results at the collation centre, all the results from the 16 local government areas had been uploaded on the Result Viewing Portal of the INEC, known as IReV.
