It is not yet Uhuru for Mr. Usman Ododo, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who was declared winner of Saturday’s governorship election late on Sunday night as his closest rival, Mr. Murtala Ajaka and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) standard bearer in the election has rejected the results while Senator Dino Melaye called for cancellation in 5 local governments of the election.

Both Mr. Ajaka and Sen Melaye condemned the widespread malpractices that characterised the conduct of election. Several pre-filled election results were seized from INEC personnel on official election duties. The Independent National Electoral Commission had to suspend elections in about 59 polling units where such results were discovered while it promised to investigate the incidences further and bring culprits to book.

The Returning Officer for the Governorship Election in Kogi state, Prof. Johnson Urama of the University of Nigeria, Nsuka had on Sunday night declared Mr. Usman Ododo, the candidate of the APC as the winner of Saturday’s governorship election.

He said Mr Ododo scored a total of 446,237 votes and is “hereby declared the winner and returned elected”.Mr Ododo won in 13 of the 21 local government areas in the states. INEC also declared the candidate of the social Democratic Party ( SDP), Mr. Murtala Ajaka, as the runner-up with a total of 259,052 votes. He won in eight local governments.

Senator Dino Melaye, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) scored 46,362 votes to take the third position. He did not win in any local government and Hon. Leke Abejide of the African Democratic Party (ADP) got 21,819 votes and won in one local government.

Prof Urama, INEC returning officer, said the total votes in the 59 affected polling units would not affect the final result of the election based on the victory margin of Mr Ododo. He, therefore, declared him the winner.

Alhaji Mohammed Kudu Haruna,National Commissioner and Member Information and Voter Education Committee had earlier on Sunday in a statement said there would be fresh election in areas where some ad-hoc staff of the Commission were caught with pre recorded result sheets on 18 November,2023.

He , however, said the decision to hold fresh elections is subject to the Returning Officer’s determination of the application of the Margin of Lead Principle. . Although Mr. Ajaka, alleged irregularities in Saturday’s election, he, however, said he won’t challenge the outcome of the poll in court stressing that it will be a waste of time.

Speaking on Channels TV’s ‘The 2023 Verdict: Off-Cycle Elections,’ Mr. Ajaka alleged that the election was rigged with the support of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

“In the whole of the five local governments in central, the whole of the five local governments in central, there was no election anywhere. They wrote results. Result sheets were given to Yahaya Bello

“In Okene local government, they turned out over 130,000 votes, haba! And INEC accepted that result and what is on the BVAS is less than 30,000. With all due respect to the person of the INEC chairman, if they don’t do a checklist and investigate their officials that went to Kogi State and allow this to stand, I doubt if there will be election in 2027.

“Because people will go into that election armed and I fear Somalia will be a child’s play. If we knew it would be the same old music, we would have played along with that old music by inflating the results from my area.

“When the commission told us yesterday that they were looking into this case, we were hopeful, that is why everybody relaxed. Only for them now to collate these results. It is annoying. Three local governments are producing 230,000-something votes,” he said,

“What am I going to court to do when the same INEC that did this is going to come as a witness to defend what they did? So it is a waste of time. Except the party people because I’m hugely disappointed. If the INEC chairman allows this to stand, they are looking for trouble in Nigeria.

“You gave me assurance that the election would be transparent, you allowed me to waste my time, spend my money, mobilise my people, only for you to write the results. Even if I’m not sad about it, you expect my supporters to be happy. I assure you if they allow this to stand as they are allowing in all the states now, they are calling for anarchy in this country.”