Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has declared the Ondo State Governor, Lucky Ayedatiwa, winner of last Saturday’s governorship election.
Aiyedatiwa won the election with a wide margin of votes totaling 366, 781. He defeated his closet rival, Hon Agboola Ajayi of the Peoples Democratic Party who pulled 117,845.
Political pundits have described the defeat as the biggest electoral defeat since the creation of the State in 1976.
“Aiyedatiwa has also made history as the first person from a small riverine community (Obenla) to emerge as governor of the State,” The Nation stated.
According to INEC, the candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Prince Adeyemi Nejo, came a distant third with 4,138 votes.
The electoral body noted that a total of 508,963 voters were accredited for the election. While 12 896 votes were rejected. 497,077 were actual votes cast in the Saturday’s election.
This was contained in a statement by the Returning Officer of INEC and Vice Chancellor of Federal University, Lokoja, Prof. Akinwumi Olayemi Durotimi.
Declaring the result, Durotimi declared that Aiyedatiwa won the election haven polled the highest number of votes cast.
The REC also said Aiyedatiwa met all the constitutional requirements, thus, he is declared the Governor-elect.
“The victory of Aiyedatiwa was expected but it was the margin of defeat that was in contention,” The Nation stated.
Aiyedatiwa is the first Governor of Edo State to serve as Deputy Governor, Acting Governor, and then elected Governor.
With his victory in the poll, Aiyedatiwa’s new tenure as governor will begin in February 2025.
The Nation wrote that what made the victory of Aiyedatiwa easy and smooth was the refusal of many chieftains of the PDP to support his candidacy. Those who refused to support Ajayi said it was payback time for him to leave the party.
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