By Banji Ayoola
Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu has been declared winner of the election held in the state on Saturday.
He was declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which said that the governor and the All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate, polled 292,830 votes to defeat other contestants.
The Returning Officer and vice-chancellor of the University of Ibadan, UI, Prof Idowu Olayinka, declared that candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Eyitayo Jegede, trailed behind the winner with 195,791 votes,
a difference of 97,039 votes; while the incumbent Deputy Governor, Agboola Ajayi of the Zenith Labour Party, ZLP, scored 69,127 votes to come a distant third.
Olayinka made the declaration at about 3 p.m. on Sunday, after all the results across the state’s 18 local government areas had been collated
According to the official results announced by the commission at its headquarters in Abuja, Akeredolu won in 15 of the state’s 18 local government areas.
His main challenger, Jegede, won in the remaining three local governments.mAltogether, 17 candidates took part in the election.
Olayinka said that 572,745 valid votes were recorded while 18,448 were rejected, and about 16,000 votes cancelled.
Akeredolu had also defeated Jegede in the 2016 governorship election. Then, Ajayi was Akeredolu’s running mate.
APC agent and special adviser to the governor, Victor Olabimtan, thanked the voters and the people of the state for their trust in the ruling party.
He said Akeredolu would not take the trust for granted.
