The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the Edo State governorship elections, Monday Okpebholo, is in a comfortable lead with over 48 thousand votes more than his closest rival, PDP candidate Asue Ighodalo, after INEC collated election results from 16 of the state’s 18 Local Government Areas (LGAs).
The collated results were announced at the INEC headquarters in Benin city on Sunday. It announcement was presided over by the Returning Officer, Faruq Kuta, a professor and vice-chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State.
Mr Kuta has announced a recess. He said the collation of the remaining two local government areas will resume by 5 p.m.
The LGAs announced so far are Esan Central, Akoko Edo, Egor, Esan South-East, Ovia North-East, Uhunmwonde, Owan West, Esan West, Igueben, Esan North East, Ovia South West, Orhionmwon, Owan East, Etsako East, Etsako Central, and Etsako West.
While the APC candidate, Mr Okpebholo, has so far garnered 244,549 votes, his PDP counterpart, Mr Ighodalo, has garnered 195,954. The Labour Party candidate, Olumide Akpata, is in a distant third with 13,348 votes so far.
While the APC candidate has won 10 LGAs, the PDP candidate has won only six LGAs. The LP candidate has not won any local government.
More than 2 million voters were expected to cast their votes in Saturday’s election but the already announced results revealed that voter apathy in Nigeria’s election has continued with a very low turnout recorded in all the LGAs already announced.
