INEC declares Sanwo-Olu winner of Lagos guber poll

Babajide Sanwo-Olu incumbent Governor of Lagos State has won Saturday’s gubernatorial election. He won 19 out of the 20 local government areas in the state.

With the result Sanwo-Olu, running on the All Progressives Congress (APC) platform has been re-elected for another four year-term to lead Nigeria’s largest commercial hub.

Sanwo-Olu was announced winner of the gubernatorial election around 1:18 am at the state headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Yaba, by the Returning Officer, Adenike Temidayo Oladiji Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology.

APC’s Sanwo-Olu scored 762134 votes to defeat his closest rival, Gbadebo Rhodes Vivour candidate of the Labour Party (LP) who scored 312329 votes.

Olajide Adediran popularly known as Jandor, the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), placed a distance third by scoring 62449 votes.

Read also: APC’s Dikko Umar-Radda wins Katsina governorship election

The total valid votes is 1155678, the rejected votes is 17953, while the total votes cast in the election is 1173631.

Also the total registered voters is 7060195, while the number of accredited voters is 11628.

The incumbent governor victory comes amid condemnation from opposition parties, about the manner the poll was conducted across Lagos.

However, the turnout for Saturday’s gubernatorial poll was perhaps the worst seen since the country returned to democratic rule in 1999.

Local and international observers said Saturday’s gubernatorial poll in Lagos was marred by low turnout, intimidation and suppression of voters across the state.

Eligible voters were prevented from casting their votes, as a result of intimidation and harassment by political thugs, especially in opposition strongholds.

Although, it was discovered that there was little improvement in the deployment of logistic in some parts of the state by INEC, compared to the February’s 25 presidential and National Assembly poll.

During the presentation of the gubernatorial election results at collation centre at INEC office in Yaba, most of the collation officers said they cancelled results in several polling units in their councils as a result of violence, manipulation and ballot box snatching.

Presenting the results of Oshodi-Isolo local government area, the collation officer, Haolat Mustapha said more than 35 polling units results was cancelled as a result of irregularities, violence and ballot box snatching across the council.

Read more: Lagos poll a sham, setback for Nigeria’s democracy – Bode George

Meanwhile, the Labour Party in Lagos State has rejected the results of Saturday’s gubernatorial election.

Dayo Ekong Lagos State chairman of the party, speaking after the announcement of the final results from Eti-Osa local government area, said the election was not free and fair as eligible voters and members of the party were intimidated and not allowed to vote across the state.

Ekong called for the cancellation of Saturday’s election results in Lagos State, while berating the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Segun Agbaje for the manner he conducted the election.

According to her, “The election was not free and fair, several of our members were not allowed to vote, they were intimidated. We lost a member of our party.

“The election should be cancelled that is our demand. The INEC REC in Lagos is not fair to youth with the manner he conducted the election, it is sad”.