The Kogi State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ahmed Ododo, is in early lead with a total of 402,598 votes after the announcement of results from 18 local government areas of the state.
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate, Murtala Ajaka, is trailing with a total tally of 187,680 votes from the same local governments.
The APC candidate is leading the SDP’s with a total of 214,918 votes.
The number of votes with which the APC is leading cancels the number of voters with PVCs in the nine cancelled wards of Ogori/Mangogo LGA.
The number of registered voters in the nine wards of Ogori Mangogo is 15,424.
The candidate of the PDP, Dino Melaye, trails in a distant third position with 37,391 votes from the 18 local government areas already declared.
The three remaining local governmentareas are Lokoja, Ibaji and Igalamela LGAs.
Ibaji and Igalamela are from the Kogi East senatorial zone, the SDP candidate’s stronghold.
Lokoja, the state capital, is in the Kogi West Senatorial zone, which has largely been dominated by the APC.
It is not clear if the SDP candidate will be able to close the gap between him and his APC opponent to either win the election outright or force a rerun.
Agents of the SDP are already calling for the cancellation of the results in the central senatorial district where the APC had scored huge votes, alleging irregularities.
But the APC party agents at the collation centre have rejected the call, saying the election was free and fair.
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