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| Babajide Sanwo-Olu(L) and Ambode |
The candidate of All Progressives Congress in Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has been declared the winner of the governorship election held on Saturday, March 9.
Returning Officer, Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede, made the declaration on Sunday at INECโs collation centre in Yaba, Lagos.
Sanwo-Olu, who scored 739,445 out of the 977,476 total valid votes in the election, defeated 44 other candidates to emerge as the winner and governor-elect in the state.
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the election, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, polled the second highest votes with 206,141 votes.
Declaring the result of the election at the stateโs collation centre in Yaba at about 8:40pm on Sunday, the state Returning Officer, Prof Eyitope Ogunbodede, said the APC candidate, Sanwo-Olu, scored the highest votes to win the election.
Ogunbodede, who is the Vice-Chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, said, โThat Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, of the All Progressives Congress, having satisfied the requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes, is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected.โ
He said the number of registered voters was 6,505,512; number of accredited voters was 1,006,074; total number of votes cast was 998,715, rejected votes was 21,239, while the total number of valid votes was 977,476.
Ogunmodede pointed out that 31 party agents signed the result sheet.
Meanwhile, from the results announced by the respective local government collation officers, votes were cancelled in about 63 polling units due largely to over-voting.
They said this was caused by dysfunctional card readers, which made some presiding officers to resort to manual voting.
Surulere had the highest cancelled polling units of 17, as the presiding officers at Aguda polling unit absconded with the card reader and result sheets.
Earlier, there was mild drama at the collation centre when the governorship candidate of the Labour Party, Ifagbemi Awamaridi, protested against the announcement of the results after the result of the last local government, Ojo, was announced by the collation officer.
Awamaridi argued that the election in the state should not have held on Saturday, given that the number of electoral materials were incomplete, as discovered during the distribution at the premises of the Central Bank of Nigeria in the state on Wednesday.
Awamaridi, whose insistence drew comments and murmurs from the audience, said, โOn Wednesday, we pointed out to INEC that the election materials were not complete and the law says election should not start until such an issue is resolved.
โINEC told us it would invite us when the matter is resolved, but that didnโt happen until the election took place yesterday. It is wrong.โ
Two representatives of two other political parties, on the other hand, applauded the conduct of the election.
A heated argument ensued thereafter at the centre until some other persons and security agents persuaded him to take his seat.
Responding, the state Returning Officer, Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede, stated that Awamaridiโs observations had been noted.
Meanwhile, after the formal announcement by the Returning Officer, the PDP agent at the collation centre, Mr. Tajudeen Jayeola Agoro, said the result was โshort of credibility.โ
โThe result was short of credibility, but the party will review the results and decide on what next to do.
โYou can imagine a situation where votes from places where non-Yoruba live were cancelled. Look at Surulere. I think itโs clear to everybody.โ
His APC counterpart, Ademola Seriki, applauded the exercise, saying the governor-elect, when sworn-in would set to work immediately.
โI assure you that he will roll up his sleeves and get to work immediately. And he will surpass the performances of his predecessors,โ Seriki added.
