The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced the results of the just concluded governorship election in Ekiti State.
INEC’s Chief Returning Officer for the poll, Professor Idowu Olayinka, declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Kayode Fayemi, as the winner of the election.
Announcing the results on Sunday in Ado-Ekiti, Professor Olayinka said the former minister was returned elected having satisfied the requirements of the law and scoring the highest number of votes.
Fayemi defeated the Deputy Governor of the state and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Professor Kolapo Olusola, and over 30 others in a keenly contested election.
He was victorious in 11 out of the 16 local government areas of the state, polling 197,459 votes to beat his closest rival Olusola who got 178,121 votes.
Jubilation in Ekiti over APC’s victory, as PDP’s candidate rejects results
Jubilation has continued unabated in Ado Ekiti following Saturday’s victory of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, in the governorship election in Ekiti State.
Results released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), yesterday, showed that Fayemi scored 197,459 votes to beat Prof. Olusola Eleka, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PD) who scored 178,121.
Fayemi who won in 12 local government areas had since extended an olive branch to the four won by the PDP candidate, Olusola, an overtures that the outgoing deputy governor has rejected.
The governor-elect has promised to use his return to power to restore the values of the state which, he said, had been bastardized by the outgoing government headed by Governor Ayodele Fayose.
Fayemi’s supporters, sporting T-shirts that bore his photograph and the APC inscription, and holding brooms, the symbol of the party, could not hide their feeling of triumph.
In his reaction, the Chairman of Fayemi Campaign Organisation in the northern senatorial zone, Mr. Rufus Adumo, commended INEC, security agents and voters for a peaceful exercise.
The state chapter of the APC through its chairman, High Chief Jide Awe, described the victory as “well-won and much deserved.”
The APC also asked Fayose and Olusola to accept and respect the wishes of Ekiti people “rather than resorting to their usual display of political hatred and desperation.”
The presiding officer of the election, Prof. Abel Idowu Olayinka, said Fayemi had satisfied the requirements of the law “and is hereby declared as the elected governor.”
Olayinka, who is the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, said the total number of votes cast during the election was 384,594, adding that there were 18,857 rejected votes bringing the total to 403,451.
Fayemi’s first term was between October 16, 2010 and October 15 2014; but while looking for a second term, he was defeated by the governorship candidate of the PDP, Mr Fayose, in a circumstance generally witnessed to be massively marred by electoral atrocities with use of soldiers and policemen to victimise and cow voters.
But Prof. Olusola has rejected the result of the poll, saying the exercise was allegedly “hijacked by political desperadoes leveraging on federal might.”
Addressing a press conference at the Ekiti State government house, he said, “This is the most audacious electoral robbery of our recent history. It shall not stand. By the grace of Almighty God and your support, I will pursue and regain my mandate.”
