The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the incumbent governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos winner of the Saturday’s Governorship elections.
Even though Lagos was reported to have been riddled with vote buying, voter disenfranchisement, series of attacks of non-Yoruba people resident in Lagos, political thuggery, INEC manipulations and so on, Prof. Adenike Oladiji, Vice-Chancellor, Federal University of Technology, (FUTA) Akure, the Returning Officer, went ahead to declare Sanwo-Olu on Monday in Lagos.
She said that Sanwo-Olu polled a total of 762, 134 votes to defeat his closest rival of the Labour Party, Mr Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour who scored 312, 329 votes. Oladiji said that the PDP candidate, Dr Abdul-Azeez Adediran garnered 62,449 votes to come a distant third in the election.
She disclosed votes garnered by other political parties in the contest as: 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 (1,635).
Oladiji put the total number of registered voters at 7,060,195; total accredited voters at 1,182620; total vote cast at 1,173,631, total valid vote at 1, 155, 678 and rejected votes at 17,953. 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 returning officer invited party agents available to sign the results of the poll, but agents of the LP and PDP were not present to sign the results. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that APC won in 19 Local Government Areas of the state, the LP won in one LGA while the PDP did not win.
In his remark, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr Olusegun Agbaje, noted that some of the allegations of manipulation leveled against him were fallacy. Agbaje, however, said that such allegations were not strange in a clime like ours and decried the poor turn out of voters. Assessing the process, Mr Olusegun Mobolaji, Lagos state Chairman, Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) decried the pockets of violence experienced in some parts of the state as well as vote buying and apathy.
He urged the candidates to imbibe the spirit of sportsmanship and accept the outcome of the elections in good faith. Mobolaji urged INEC to improve on the shortcomings in the future elections. Earlier, before leaving the collation centre, Pastor Dayo Ekong, Lagos State Chairman of LP and party’s State Collation Agent, called for the cancellation of the elections.
Accusing Agbaje of disappointing the youth, Ekong decried high level of violence, attacks, ballot boxes snatching, disruption, disenfranchisement as well as killing in some case that characterised the exercise.
