The candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC in the Ekiti State governorship election, Dare Bejide, failed to secure a victory at his own polling unit. He lost it losing it to Governor Oyebanji of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
At Bejide’s polling unit, the APC secured a landslide victory with 140 votes, while the ADC secured 37 votes, while the African Action Congress trailed far behind with 3 votes, and the Peoples Democratic Party finished last at the unit with just 2 votes.
Governor Oyebanji also secured a dominant victory at his voting center, Polling Unit 003 in Ikogosi, Ekiti West Local Government Area, where he won 326 votes, while his ADC rival, Dare Bejide, scored only 2 votes and Action Democratic Party and the AAC received 1 vote each, alongside 3 voided ballots.
But the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP governorship candidate, Wole Oludeye, won his polling unit, defeating Governor Oyebanji. Oludeye polled 113 votes, while the APC candidate secured 84 votes.
Data from the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV), as compiled by Election Results Analysis Dashboard (ERAD), further shows the APC’s early dominance. With results from 1,258 of the state’s 2,445 polling units uploaded so far, Governor Oyebanji’s APC has amassed 78,979 votes, representing 84.1 percent of the votes counted. The PDP trails with 10,736 votes, or 11.4 percent, while the ADC has secured 2,964 votes, accounting for 3.2 percent.
Across the state, the early results show the APC leading by a massive margin, with the PDP following behind and the ADC settling into third place.
The election features 1,059,360 registered voters across 2,445 polling units, which has largely turned into a three-way battle between Oyebanji, Bejide, and the PDP’s Wole Oludeye.
It was earlier reported that the polls were marred by widespread allegations of financial inducement. Earlier in the day, a team of about ten Economic and Financial Crimes Commission operatives had stormed Governor Oyebanji’s personal polling unit at 9:05 a.m. to monitor the environment, though no arrests were made there.
However, at Polling Unit 10, Ward B, in Iyin-Ekiti, angry voters fiercely resisted and chased away anti-graft officials who arrived to crack down on suspected vote-buying. The confrontational crowd insisted there was no financial malpractice at their station and forced the operatives to leave so that voting could continue uninterrupted.
