Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde is in the early lead in the March 18 poll conducted in the South-West state with victory in 17 of the 18 local government (LG) election results announced so far by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Of the 33 local governments in the state, 18 LG results have been collated so far by the electoral umpire, with 15 more to go.
Makinde, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is seeking reelection after his four-year term.
He is seeking reelection with 15 others including Labour Party (LP)’s Akinwale Tayo as well as a serving senator, Teslim Folarin of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Makinde won 17 of the LGs announced so far while Folarinn won one.
Makinde is the last of the PDP G5 or Integrity Group with an election. Already, Governors Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) and Samuel Ortom (Benue), who have been in office for eight years each, all lost their senatorial bid while Nyesom Wike (Rivers) who is also completing his second term as Governor didn’t run for any elective post.
With the defeat of three of his comrades, all eyes are now on Makinde in the March 18 poll.
Governorship elections were held in 28 of Nigeria’s 36 states on Saturday. The governorship and state assembly elections were held a week later than initially scheduled after a court case forced INEC to move them forward.
Eight of the 36 states — Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Osun, and Ondo — have governorship elections “off-season” due to litigations and court judgements.
In alphabetical order, the 28 states where governorship elections were on March 18 are Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara.
Of the 28 states, 11 serving governors including Makinde are seeking reelection while 17 outgoing governors are in the final weeks of their constitutional two-term limits of eight years, having been sworn in on May 29, 2015.
Source:channelstv.com
