FOLLOWING the March 18 governorship elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced the winners in 26 states. The polls held in 28 states. Elections in two outstanding states were declared inconclusive.

INEC declared elections in Adamawa and Kebbi states inconclusive because of massive cancellation, over-voting and the low margin of winning votes.

Out of the nation’s 36 states, eight, namely Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Ondo and Osun, hold off cycle governorship elections due to litigations and court judgments. Elections in Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo are scheduled for November 2023.

Also, out of the 28 states where governorship elections were conducted, governors sought re-election in 11 states. The states are Oyo, Bauchi, Kwara, Gombe, Nasarawa, Yobe, Ogun, Lagos, Borno and Adamawa.

Eighteen political parties participated in the governorship election across the 28 states with 416 candidates showing interest in the position. Despite over 74 million voters registered and more than 69 million PVCs collected in the 28 states, 19.3 million voters voted during the guber polls in 23 states.

The ICIR couldn’t verify the number of voters that participated in Zamfara, Taraba, Abia, Kebbi and Adamawa guber polls.

However, of the 26 winners announced so far, 17 were first timers while the remaining secured their second term mandate. Although there were many irregularities that marred and affected the outcome of the polls across the states, the election was still perceived to be an upgrade on the Presidential Election held on February 25.

A breakdown of the results from the 26 states where winners have been declared showed that the All Progressives Congress (APC) won in 15 states while the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) emerged victorious in nine states. The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and the Labour Party (LP) won a state each.

The states won by the APC are Benue, Borno, Cross River, Ebonyi, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Katsina, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Sokoto, Yobe. 

PDP on the other hand won Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Delta, Oyo, Plateau, Taraba, Rivers, Zamfara and Enugu

NNPP and LP secured Kano and Abia states, respectively.

It is interesting to note that the APC claimed Lagos State after the LP took the state during the presidential election held on February 25. Babajide Sanwo-Olu edged LP’s governorship candidate with over 300,000 votes difference and was declared the winner amidst reported cases of voter suppression and violence in some parts of the state.

In Rivers, Governor Nyesom Wike’s anointed candidate Sim Fubura was declared the winner after polling 302,614 votes during the guber election. Tonye Cole of the APC came a distant second with 95,274 votes while Beatrice Itubo of the LP scored 22,224 votes to come third. This was unlike the outcome of the presidential election when the ruling APC secured the majority of votes in the state.

The New Nigeria Peoples Party governorship candidate in Kano Abba Kabir Yusuf claimed the governorship seat after polling more than a million votes to defeat the ruling party’s candidate. However, APC will continue as the ruling party in Kaduna.

Also, Alex Otti of the Labour Party in Abia State was the only governorship candidate of the party that won the guber poll. Otti polled a total of 175,466 votes to defeat his closest rival and candidate of the PDP who scored 88,526. He was declared winner after the result from the controversial Obingwa Local Government Area was announced by INEC.

Meanwhile, there was a major upset in Zamfara as the PDP candidate Daudu Lawal won the election to defeat the sitting governor, Bello Matawalle. Matawalle is the only incumbent governor that has so far lost his second term bid out of the 11 governors that sought reelection. 

Below are the Governors reelected under the APC

1. Babajide Sanwolu, the executive governor of Lagos State secured his second term after edging his closest rival, Gbadebo Rhodes Vivour.

2. Dapo Abiodun was also reelected as the executive governor of Ogun State after polling 276,298 votes to defeat Ladi Adebutu of the PDP.

3. Babagana Umaru Zulum won the guber poll in Borno with over 400 votes. He secured 545,543 to defeat PDP’s Mohammed Ali who scored 82,147.

4. Abdulrazaq Abdulrahman retained his seat in Kwara after scoring 273,424 votes to defeat PDP’s Yaman Abdullahi.

5. Muhammadu Yahaya won his reelection bid in Gombe. He defeated Mohammed Bade of the PDP.

6. Abdullahi Sule also secured his second term by defeating David Ombugadu of PDP in Nasarawa. Sule scored 347,209 votes.

7. Mai Mala Buni won his reelection as the governor of Yobe state with 317,113 votes. He won in all the 17 LGAs of the state.

Governors that secured second term under PDP

8. Seyi Makinde of Oyo State got 563,756 votes to defeat his closest rival Teslim Folarin of the APC who polled 256,685 votes.

9. Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State polled 525,280 votes while his closest rival, Sadique Abubakar of the APC got 432,272 votes.

Newly elected governors 

APC:

10. Hyacinth Alia defeated his closest rival, Titus Uba of the PDP who came a distant second, with a margin of 251,020 votes in Benue State.

11. Bassey Ottu polled 258,619 votes to defeat the candidate of the PDP, Sandy Onor, who scored 179,636 votes, in Cross River State.

12. Sheriff Oborevwori scored 360234 votes to defeat the APC candidate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, who scored 240229 in Delta State.

13. Inuwa Yahaya won the guber poll with 342,821 votes in Gombe State.

14. Umar Namadi defeated PDP’s Lamido Mustapha Sule after polling 618,449 in Jigawa State.

15. Uba Sani polled 730,002 votes to defeat Mohammed Isa Ashiru of the PDP, who scored a total of 719,196 votes in Kaduna State.

16. Dikko Radda polled 859,892 votes to emerge the governor-elect in Katsina State.

17. Mohammed Bago scored 46,9896 votes to defeat his closest rival, Liman Isah Kantigi of PDP, who garnered 38,7476 votes, in Niger State.

18. Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto had a total of 453,661 votes to defeat his closest rival and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Saidu Umar, who got 404,632 in Sokoto State.

PDP:

19. Umo Eno scored 354,348 votes, beating his closest rival the Young Progressive Party (YPP), who got 136,262 votes in Akwa Ibom.

20. Caleb Mutfwang polled 525,299 votes to defeat his closest rival and the candidate of the ruling APC Nentawe Yilwatda, who polled 481,370 votes in Plateau State.

21. Siminialayi Fubara scored 302,614 votes to win the governorship seat ahead of Tonye Cole of the APC, who had 95,274 votes, in Rivers State.

22. Kefas Agbu polled 257,926 to edge the NNPP candidate, Muhammad Yahaya, who scored 202,277 votes to emerge second in Taraba State.

23. Daudu Lawal won the election after scoring 377,726 votes in Zamfara State.

24. Peter Mbah scored 160,895 votes to defeat his closest rival, Chijioke Edeoga of the Labour Party (LP), who polled 157,552 votes, in Enugu State.

NNPP:

25. Abba Kabir Yusuf was declared the winner with 1,019,602 votes, defeating his closest rival, APC candidate Nasir Gawuna, who polled 890,705 votes, in Kano State.

LP:

26. Alex Otti was declared the winner after defeating the candidate of the ruling party, PDP, in Abia State.

*Additional research was done by James Emmanuel.

Mustapha USMAN

Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M