INEC to hold fresh Election in Kogi Polling Units as Ododo leads

In the ongoing Kogi State governorship election, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Usman Ododo, has expanded his lead as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced results for 20 out of 21 local government areas in the state.

As of now, Ododo holds a commanding lead with 439,245 votes, while the Social Democratic Party (SDP) trails with 242,068 votes. The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) follows with 46,093 votes, and the ADC has garnered 20,895 votes.

The only outstanding local government area, Ibaji, is yet to report its results to the collation center. Consequently, the state’s returning officer, Johnson Urama, has adjourned the collation exercise until 9:00 pm.

Urama explained, “They will still take another one hour to get here,” referring to the awaited results from Ibaji. This marks the second adjournment of the day, with an earlier suspension lasting approximately five hours.

Gabriel Longpet, the Resident Electoral Commissioner overseeing Kogi State, emphasized the necessity of the extension due to the unavailability of results from the remaining three local government areas.

Despite the earlier resumption of the collation around 7:00 pm, it was again halted to await the arrival of results from the election in Ibaji local government of Kogi.

However, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared that a re-run of elections would take place in 59 polling units located in the Ogori/Magongo Local Government Area of the state.

The electoral body stated that the fresh polls are scheduled for the upcoming Saturday, November 18, 2023. This announcement was made by INEC National Commissioner Mohammed Haruna in a statement released on Sunday night.