18th November, 2019
Ayo Oluokun/Lokoja
The Independent National Electoral Commission is now set to conclude the collation of the results of the 16 November governorship election in Kogi state, with Governor Yahaya Bello of APC and Engineer Musa Wada, the main rivals.
INEC suspended the collation of results on Sunday after announcing results for 19 of the 21 local governments. The electoral umpire was back on duty Monday morning.
The INEC officials are now summing up the figures from the various councils and also considering the number of cancelled votes because of violence.
If the margin of victory is smaller in comparison to the cancelled votes, INEC will call the election inconclusive and announce a date for the supplementary election.
INEC did same in 2015, when APC candidate Abubakar Audu led his PDP rival, Idris Wada with a margin of 41, 353 votes. Audu scored 240867 votes, while Wada scored 199,514 votes.
Suspicion that INEC may be heading towards the same route was fuelled by the clarification the Returning Officer for the election Prof Ibrahim Umar asked the returning officer for Dekina Local Government on cancelled votes in some areas of the local government.
The presiding officer said election was cancelled as a result of violence. He said votes were cancelled in 31 polling units with total number of 28, 505 votes.
On Sunday, INEC declared the senatorial race in Kogi West inconclusive because the margin between the candidates, Smart Adeyemi and Dino Melaye is lower than the 43,127 registered voters in 53 polling units of 20 registration areas in the zone where elections were cancelled.
This number will certainly be factored in the calculations for the governorship race.
Yahaya Bello was leading his closest challenger, Engineer Musa Wada of Peoples Democratic Party by over 200, 000 votes at the end of collation process on Sunday during which results from 19 local governments were declared.
The Governor consolidated his lead as he also won in Ibaji and Lokoja, the last two local governments which results were declared on Monday morning.
In Ibaji LG, the APC candidate scored 12, 682 and PDP candidate 10,504 votes. SDP candidate got 221 votes.
In Lokoja, the last of the 21 local governments, the All Progressives Congress, APC scored 19457 votes while the Peoples Democratic Party got 11045 votes. The Social Democratic Party, SDP got 722.
There were fears that the election may be declared inconclusive as a result of high level of cancellation of votes in most parts of the state.
The agent of PDP in the collation centre has continued to complain about the results which he said were doctored.
He also complained that results in a Lokoja Ward where there were reports of snatching of ballot boxes in many polling units and three deaths were recorded were not cancelled.
The returning officer for the election, Prof Ibrahim Umar is leading the collation of the figures.
All The results:
N0 LGs APC PDP
1 Olamaboro 16,876 8,155
2 Idah 4,602 13,962
3 Yagba West 7,868 8,860
4 Ajaokuta 17,952 5,565
5 Mopa-muro 4,953 3,581
6 Okehi 36,954 478
7 Yagba East 6,735 7,546
8 Koton Karfe 14,097 9,404
9- Kabba/Bunu 15,364 8,084
10 Okene 112,762 139
11 Igala Mela/Odolu 8,075 11,195
12 Adavi 64,657 366
13 Omala 8,473 14,403
14 Ijumu 11,425 7,585
15 Ogori-Magongo 3,679 2,145
16 Bassa 8,386 9,724
17 Ankpa 11,269 28,108
18 Ofu 11,006 12,264
19 Dekina 8,948 16,575
20 Ibaji 12,682 10,504
21 Lokoja 19457 11,045