Karimi wins Kogi West senatorial seat, sole ADC Rep returns

All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Sunday Karimi, has won Kogi West senatorial election.

Karimi, who twice served in the House of Representatives between 2011 and 2019, is succeeding the incumbent occupant, Smart Adeyemi, in the 10th National Assembly.

The APC standard bearer polled 70,184 votes to defeat his main opponent, Tajudeen Yusuf of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 51, 964 votes.

He won in five of the seven councils in Kogi West, namely Yagba West, Yagba East, Mopamuro, Ijumu and Kotonkarfe, while Yusuf won in Kabbabunu and Lokoja councils.

The 18,220 ballot difference between Karimi and Yusuf ensured that the Senate seat rotates to Yagba Federal Constituency, 24 years since return to democracy in 1999.

Karimi’s victory has halted the dominance of the seat by Kabba-Bunu-Ijumu Federal Constituency 16 years after Adeyemi took the baton from ex-Senator Tunde Ogbeha. Ogbeha from Lokoja-Kotonkarfe had represented the zone between 1999 and 2007. Adeyemi and Dino Melaye from Kabba-Bunu-Ijumu axis shared 16 years apiece; three terms and one term, respectively, from 2007 to 2023.

In a related development, the sole African Democratic Congress (ADC) member in the Ninth National Assembly, Leke Abejide, won the House of Representatives election in Yagba Federal Constituency for a second term.

Abejide cleared all three councils that make up the constituency.

The Collation Officer, Dr. Okpanachi Stephen, said Abejide polled 23,271 ballots to defeat his closest rival and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Folorunsho Olafemi, who scored 10, 426 votes and flag-bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Tolorunjuwon Faniyi, that garnered 6,421 votes to come distant third.