The electoral umpire said the declaration is due to the fact that the margin between Smart Adeyemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is lower than the number of registered voters in 53 polling units of 20 registration areas in the zone where elections were cancelled.
Mr Adeyemi is said to have scored 80,118 votes while Mr Melaye polled 59,548 is 20,570. The number of registered voters in the affected areas is 43,127.
The returning officer, Olayinde Lawal, who declared the election inconclusive, said he is constrained by law not to declare a winner because of the lead margin between the leading candidates.
He said INEC will announce a new date for the conduct of a supplementary election in the 53 polling units before a winner can be returned.
Mr Melaye has already rejected the results.
Sources and other local observer groups had also reported that the election in Kogi State was marred by violence and vote-buying.
Two observer groups, YIAGA and Situation Room, have called for the total cancellation of the elections held in Kogi on Saturday. The state’s governorship election and the Kogi West senatorial rerun election were held on Saturday.
