By Abiola Olawale
The Edo state governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Monday Okpebholo has emerged in the early lead.
Okpebholo has emerged in the driving seat after 16 local government results have been announced out of the total 18 local government areas in the state.
The New Diplomat reports that according to the official results, APC’s Okpebholo has polled a total of 244,549 in the 16 local government results announced so far.
Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) comes second with 195,954 votes while Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party (LP) has 13,348 votes in the results announced so far.
The New Diplomat also reports that Ighodalo and Okpebolo have won their respective local government areas in the Edo State gubernatorial elections held on Saturday.
PDP’s Ighodalo got the highest total votes of 14, 199 votes in his local government, Esan South East.
Okpebolo raked the second highest with 8, 398 votes, while Akpata of the Labour Party got just 98 votes.
On the other hand, APC’s Okpebolo won his LGA with a total of 10 990 votes, followed by PDP’s Ighodalo with 8,618 votes, and Akpata with 418 votes.
Meanwhile, the collation centre for the election has recessed and will reconvene at 5 pm to accommodate the arrival of results from two additional local government areas. Currently, outcomes from 16 council areas have been announced at the INEC Collation Centre in Benin City.
