The Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, on Sunday became one of the major casualties of the 2019 general elections as he lost his bid to return to the Senate. Apart from Saraki, the other two senatorial candidates of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, lost to the All Progressives Congress.
Saraki lost to the Kwara Central Senatorial District candidate of the APC, Dr Ibrahim Oloriegbe, in what election observers described as a major upset.
Oloriegbe polled 123, 808 votes to defeat the Senate President who scored 68, 994 votes in the four local government areas of the Kwara Central Senatorial District.
The result of the election was announced by the Senatorial District Returning Officer, Prof. Olatunbosun Owoyomi, from the University of Ilorin.
In Asa Local Government Area, Oloriegbe polled 15, 932 votes to defeat Saraki who scored 11, 252 votes.
The APC candidate also got 30, 014 votes in Ilorin East Local Government Area to 14, 654 polled by his PDP rival.
In Ilorin West, which is considered Saraki’s stronghold, Oloriegbe polled 51, 531 votes to defeat the Senate President with 30, 075 votes.
The situation was the same in Ilorin South where the APC senatorial candidate floored the Senate President with 26, 331 votes as against 13, 031 votes garnered by Saraki.
The APC’s candidates won the House of Representatives seats in Asa/Ilorin West and Ilorin South/Ilorin East Federal Constituencies.
In the presidential election, the APC maintained the lead in 14 out of the 15 local government areas already announced.
NAN reports that the PDP only led in Oke Ero Local Government with 6,242 votes to 6,079 votes polled by APC.
Buhari wins in Ekiti
Though the INEC chair did not announce the result of the election in Ekiti State, the commission’s Returning Officer, Prof. Idowu Olayinka, who is also the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, did.
Olayinka said the standard bearer of the APC in the presidential election, President Muhammadu Buhari, scored 219,231 votes in Ekiti State while the candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who came second in the state, scored 154,032.
The total valid votes in the poll, he said, were 381,132, rejected votes 12,577, while total votes were 393, 709.
Atiku leads in Ondo, wins 12 LGs, APC 6
However, Atiku is leading in Ondo State after winning 12 out of the 23 local government areas released by INEC as of the time of filing this report.
The INEC Returning Officer in the state, Prof. Kayode Soremekun, on Sunday said the PDP candidate won in nine out of 15 local government areas of the state while Buhari won in six.
According to INEC, the local government areas won by the PDP included Idanre, Ondo East, Ose, Ifedore , Akure North and Ile Oluji /Oke Igbo, Irele and Okitipupa Local Government Areas.
However, the APC candidate won in Akoko South-East, Akoko South-West, Akoko North-East, Akoko North-West, Owo and Odigbo Local Government Areas.
Similarly, the senator representing the Ondo North Senatorial District, Ajayi Boroffice, was declared winner of the senatorial election in the district by INEC.
The two-term senator of the APC won the election by polling 53,199, defeating the candidates of the PDP and the Action Alliance, who scored, 34, 490 and 43,100 votes respectively.
INEC declared the Ondo South Senatorial District poll inconclusive. The PDP won the Ondo Central senatorial seat.
Buhari, Atiku share 2 LGAs in Benue
In Benue State, Buhari scored 12,197 votes in Tarka Local Government Area to floor Atiku who had 4,875 votes.
Announcing the results on Sunday in Makurdi, the INEC Collation Officer for the election in Tarka Local Government Area, Prof. Simon Ejembi, said the local government area had 10 registration areas with 50,180 registered voters.
Also announcing the result of the presidential poll for Ado Local Government Area of Benue State, the collation officer, Prof. Idugba Echi, said the PDP candidate polled 8,614 to defeat Buhari, who polled 5,373 votes.
The News Agency of Nigeria reported that the results of the presidential poll in 21 other local government areas were being awaited.
Buhari in early lead in Katsina
Expectedly in Katsina State where Buhari hails from, the APC presidential candidate cleared all the three local governments declared so far by INEC.
The local councils are Daura, Matazu and Ingawa.
In Daura LG, Dr Abdu Yau of the Federal University, Dutsinma, who is the collation officer, said the APC polled 37,648 to defeat the PDP candidate who had 4,650 votes.
None of the remaining political parties that participated in the election scored up to 10 votes.
The Collation Officer for Matazu council, Dr Christopher Ndabula, also of FUDMA, said the APC scored 27,625 votes, while the PDP polled 9,151 votes.
He put the total votes cast in the council at 37,297 while 567 votes were rejected.
In Ingawa Local Government Area, Buhari won with 29,230 votes, while Atiku who came second polled 7,625 votes.
The collation officer for the council, Dr Suleiman Hassan, who announced the results, put the total votes cast in the council at 39,025.
INEC Chief Returning Officer for Katsina State, Prof. Fatimah Mukhtar, was still supervising the announcement of the presidential election result as of the time of filing this report.
NAN
