The much antics that the race to the Oke Mosan government office, Abeokuta elicited in Ogun appeared to be over as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Prince Dapo Abiodun, the candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), winner of the Saturday’s governorship polls in the state.
The state Returning Officer for the governorship polls, prof. Idowu Olayinka , announced at the INEC headquarters in Abeokuta early Monday morning that Abiodun scored a total of 241, 670 votes to clinch the victory.
Olayinka who is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan explained that Abiodun beat his closest rival, Hon. Adekunle Akinlade of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) who came second with 222, 153 votes.
He said that the candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) came third with 110, 422 votes while the Peoples Democratic Party Candidate, Sen. Buruji Kashamu who scored 70,290 votes was fourth.
A breakdown of the results on local government basis as announced by local government collation officers shows that Abiodun won in 11 council areas.
They are Ijebu-Ode , Odogbolu, Odeda, Ijebu North-East, Sagamu, Abeokuta – South, Ijebu-East.
Others are Remo- North, Ogun Waterside.
Obafemi-Owode and Ikenne,
Akinlade of the APM won in six council areas which are Abeokuta – North, Egbado- South, Ewekoro, Ipokia, Ifo and Ado Odo- Ota.
Isiaka of the ADC won in Imeko- Afon and Egbado-North local governments while Kasamu of the PDP won in the Ijebu-North local government area.
According to Olayinka, the total number of registered voters was 2, 375, 003 while the total number of accredited voters was 708, 807.
He said that the number of valid votes was 680,947 while 20,969 votes were rejected.
Olayinka added that the total number of votes cast was 701,916.
The Returning Officer who noted that the margin of lead between Abiodun and Akinlade was 19,517 votes noted that the figure is more than the total cancelled votes which he puts at 7,100.
From the results, the overwhelming votes garnered by Abiodun at his home turf of Ogun East was just enough to offset the marginal losses he suffered in Ado-Odo/Ota and Ifo LGAs to Akinlade. Both local governments have huge population and are often seen as swing areas in every Ogun governorship election.
Though Akinlade was able to win 3 LGAs in his Ogun West, the other two LGAs clinched by his Yewa kinsman and ADC’s candidate, GNI, was a minus for him and a plus to Abiodun who won 8 in Ogun East, losing only Ijebu-North to Kashamu.
Ogun West, bordered by Benin Republic and populated by the Yewa/Aworis has five LGAs; Ogun Central of the Egbas has 6 LGAs, while the Ogun East inhabited by the Ijebu/Remos has nine LGAs.
