APC’s Yahaya Bello elected Kogi governor for second term

The Kogi State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Yahaya Bello has been re-elected for a second term.

The Returning Officer for the election and Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Professor Ibrahim Umar announced the result at the INEC office in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital.

APC’s Bello won 12 local governments to beat his major challenger Musa Wada of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who won 9 local governments.

In total, Bello polled 406,222 votes. Wada polled 189,704. The governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) Natasha Akpoti polled 9482 votes to come third.

Professor Umar declared the winner following the collation of results from all 21 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state, an exercise which lasted more than 24 hours.

Announcing the final results of the election, the returning officer noted that a total of 1,646,350 people registered for the election while 636,202 were accredited to vote.

He explained that the margin between the winner of the election and the runner-up was 216,518 votes.

The conduct of the election has elicited different reactions across political parties and candidates.

Governorship candidates of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Musa Wada and Natasha Akpoti both rejected the results which they claim was not credible.

PDP’s Wada after rejecting the election results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said he would go to the tribunal to challenge the election result.

“They (Kogi people) should not despair,” Wada said in a video tweeted by the PDP.

“We shall pursue this to a logical conclusion within the coffers of the law in this country.”
The PDP candidate said the announced results were fabricated.

SDP’s Akpoti, on the other hand, called for an outright cancellation of the election.

She said the results announced did not represent how the people voted.

Akpoti accused APC and winner of the election Yahaya Bello of using violence to subvert the will of the people.

Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari, however, described the election as a ‘race well-won’ for Bello and the APC.

In a statement by presidential spokesman Femi Adesina, Buhari saluted INEC officials and security agencies for creditably discharging their responsibilities under difficult conditions.

Buhari called on all political actors and stakeholders in Kogi State to take deliberate steps to eschew electoral violence.

He said a peaceful and orderly electoral process is vital to Nigeria’s quest for an enduring democracy.