Unless otherwise decided, Senator Monday Okpebholo will be the next governor of Edo State from 12 November, this year.
According to the results collated by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from across all 18 Local Government Areas of the state, the Edo Central senator won the election with 291,667 votes to defeat the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Asue Ighodalo, who pulled 247,274 votes, Labour Party’s (LP) Barrister Olumide Akpata with 22,763 votes, and 14 other candidates.
The last two results came from Oredo and Ikpoba-Okha LGAs, both in Edo South where the outgoing governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, and Akpata hail from. APC won in Oredo scoring 30,780 votes as against 24,938 votes for PDP, and 5,389 votes for LP.
In Ikpoba-Okha, PDP emerged victorious with 26,382 votes as against 16.338 votes, while LP had 4,026 votes.
APC won in 11 LGAs including Akoko-Edo, Egor, Esan Central, Esan West, Etsako Central and Etsako East. Others are: Etsako West, Oredo, Orhionmwon, Owan East and Owan West.
PDP prevailed in the remaining seven LGAs – Esan Northeast, Esan Southeast, Igueben, Ikpoba-Okha, Ovia Northeast, Ovia Southwest and Uhunmwonde.
The Returning Officer, Prof. Faruq Adamu Kuta is expected to make the formal declaration of Okpebholo as winner of the election.
The PDP raised concerns about the result, alleging that it did not reflect the wishes of the electorate as expressed in Saturday’s election.
