Governor Godwin Obaseki of the Peoples Democratic Party has pulled a surprise in the Saturday’s Edo State governorship election after recording commanding 250,345 votes in the ongoing collation exercise from 13 local government areas.
In the ongoing results announced by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Sunday, the governor’s challenger, Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the All Progressives Congress has registered 154,192 votes, so far.
Results from 13 local government areas have so far been collated at the INEC collation exercise in Benin City, the state capital.
Edo State has 18 local government areas and the election was held in all the local government areas.
Mr Obaseki has won in 11 LGAs including his home Oredo LGA, the largest, while Mr Ize-Iyamu has only picked two, Owan East and Etsako West, Adam Oshiomhole’s LGA.
Obaseki won his first election in 2016 as a candidate of the APC, principally supported by Mr Oshiomole, the immediate past governor and former chairman of the APC. Mr Ize-Iyamu was then the candidate of the PDP.
But in the course of his term as the governor, Mr Obaseki became estranged with Mr Oshiomhole, causing an epic political battle now being capped off with his expected victory today.
The battle contributed to the fall of Mr Oshiomhole as the chairman of the APC. But Mr Obaseki also could not get that party’s ticket and he had to switch to the PDP with his deputy, Phillip Shaibu.
Below is a breakdown of the votes awarded to both main candidates in 13 local government areas:
Esan West
APC – 7,189
PDP – 17,434
Oredo
APC – 18,365
PDP – 43,498
Esan South-East
APC – 9,237
PDP – 10,563
Etsako West
APC – 26,140
PDP – 17,959
Ovia North-East
APC – 9,907
PDP – 16,987
Owan West
APC – 11,193
PDP – 11,485
Owan East
APC – 19,295
PDP – 14,762
Egor
APC – 10,202
PDP – 27,621
Uhunmwonde
APC – 5,972
PDP – 10,022
Ikpoba Okha
APC – 18,218
PDP – 41,030
Esan Central
APC – 6,719
PDP – 10,794
Esan North-East
APC – 6556
PDP – 13,579
Igueben LG
APC – 5199
PDP – 7870
More later…
