- Sanwo-Olu,Makinde,Abdulrasaq,ahead in Lagos,Oyo,Kwara
- Tight race in Kano,Ogun,Delta,Abia,Ebonyi,Baichi,Others
- INEC Staff Abducted In Imo
- Security agencies failed Nigerians, says CSO
- Candidates in anxious wait as INEC begins results upload
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his All Progressives Congress (APC) appear to be heading for victory in yesterday’s governorship and house of assembly elections after recovering from the shock of the party’s unexpected defeat in last month’s presidential election in the state.
Early results in Kwara State are also in favour of Governor Abdulrahman AbdulRasaq and Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde.
Same applies to PDP’s Siminilaye Fubara in River State and APC’s Prince Bassey Otu in Cross River.
The results however show tight contests in Ogun State between incumbent Governor Dapo Abiodun and PDP’s Ladipo Adebutu, and in Ebonyi State between APC’s Francis Nwifuru, All Progressive Grand Alliance’s (APGA’s) Bernard Odoh and PDP’s Ifeanyi Odii. But Abiodun, in a tweet on his official handle @dabiodunMFR at about 10pm yesterday assured his supporters that there was no cause for alarm.
There were reports of politicians trying to induce voters with cash and other gifts in Niger, Gombe, Kwara, Kano, Bauchi, Kebbi and many other states.
Although voter turnout was impressive in some places, only a few were seen exercising their franchise in most of the polling stations visited even as cases of ballot snatching and other forms of violence were recorded.
It was gathered that they were released following intervention by security agents but election materials, including BVAS machines, are still missing.
An election observer organisation, Connected Development, on Saturday, accused security agencies, especially the Nigeria Police Force of undermining the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections in Nigeria.
The organisation said security personnel were responsible for the spate of violence and voter suppression that characterised the election so far.
Executive Director of CODE, Hamzat Lawal, stated these while disclosing the organisation’s preliminary statement on the elections in Abuja, on Saturday.
As of 10pm, a total of 77,143 results for the governorship and state House of Assembly elections had been uploaded to the iREV portal.
Opposition parties and many observers knocked INEC over its failure to immediately upload results on its portal after the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections. The commission explained that technical glitches marred the results upload, but many dismissed the explanation.
Governorship and state Houses of Assembly candidates of the political parties, their supporters and other stakeholders are in anxious wait for the results of the polls, which were held on Saturday even as the Independent National Electoral Commission began uploading of the results on its results viewing portal.
The governorship election was held in 28 of the 36 states of the federation, while the state assemblies’ poll was conducted in all the states.
