The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Senator Monday Okpebholo, has taken the lead in the ongoing Edo State governorship election, surpassing his closest rival, Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), by over 48,000 votes.
Out of the 16 local government areas (LGAs) declared so far at the INEC Collation Centre in Benin City on Sunday, Okpebholo, who currently serves as Senator for Edo Central, has secured victories in 10 LGAs, amassing a total of 244,549 votes. His PDP counterpart, Ighodalo, has 195,954 votes, winning six LGAs. Labour Party (LP) candidate Olumide Akpata trails in third with 13,346 votes.
Following the declaration of results from the 16 LGAs, the INEC Collation Centre paused its proceedings. The Returning Officer, Professor Faruk Adamu Kuta, Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Minna, announced a recess at 2:19 pm to await results from the remaining two LGAs. The collation process is set to resume at 5 pm, when the winner of the election is expected to be declared.
Earlier, the collation centre opened just before noon, following Saturday’s governorship election in the South-South state.
Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disclosed that its Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Okpoba Okha Local Government Area was threatened during the Edo State governorship election on Saturday, leading to a stampede that injured one of its officials.
Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Mohammed Haruna, National Commissioner and Member of the Information and Voter Education Committee, said, “The Commission received a deeply disturbing report from our Resident Electoral Commissioner of a threat to our office in Okpoba Okha Local Government Area yesterday, resulting in a stampede in which one of our officials was injured.”
Despite the incident, INEC is pressing ahead with state-level collation of results for the governorship election.
The commission has activated its INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal to facilitate the upload of polling unit results and has already completed collation in all 192 wards across the state.
