The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Biodun Oyebanji, has been declared the winner of Ekiti’s gubernatorial election.
Prof. Oyebode Adebowale, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) returning officer, declaring the winner, said Oyebanji polled a total of 187, 057 to win the election. He said that Oyebanji had certified the law and was, therefore, 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 Mr. Segun Oni, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate, scored 82, 211, to come second.
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.
However, the Ekiti South West Local Government Area Collation Officer, Prof. Gbolagade Jonathan, said there were issues of ballot snatching at Ward 6, Units 5, and 7.
Jonathan, while given his reports, said they were about to sort the results when gunmen stormed the affected units and started shooting sporadically making the people run for safety, while they carted away the ballot boxes in the process.
He explained that the two affected units had a total number of accredited voters of 266 and 128 respectively.
