The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abiodun Abayomi Oyebanji winner of the Ekiti State governorship election.
Declaring the winner, Prof. Oyebode Adebowale, the INEC returning officer, said Oyebanji polled a total of 187, 057 to win the election.
He said that Oyebanji having met the provisions of the law and was, therefore duly elected and declared the winner.
“That I, Prof. Oyebode Adebowale, hereby certified that I am the returning officer of the Ekiti 2022 Governorship Election held on June 18.
“That Biodun Oyebanji, the candidate of APC, having satisfied the requirements of the law, is hereby declared the winner and returned,” Adebowale declared.
The INEC returning officer, who is also the Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan, while given the breakdown of the total votes scored by the participating political parties, said that Segun Oni of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), scored 82, 211, to come second.
Others were the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Chief Bisi Kolawole, who polled 67,457; African Action Congress (AAC) 409; Accord (A) scored 166; All Progressives Grand Alliance,(APGA) 17 while Action Democratic Congress (ADC) polled 141 votes.
Also, the Action Democratic Party (ADP) scored 5,597; Allied Peoples Movement (APM) 290; Labour Party (LP) polled 195 votes; New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) scored 529 and National Rescue Movement (NRM) 347; Young Progressives Party (YPP) polled 618 among others.
According to the INEC Returning Officer, the total numbers of registered voters were 989,224, accredited voters, 363,438, valid votes were, 351865 and voided votes were 8888.
Although a case of ballot snatching was reported at Ward 6 , Units 5 and 7 – a total of 394 ballot papers, the elections has been rancour-free and adjudged largely free and fair by observers.