The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governor Seyi Makinde has been elected for a second term in Oyo State.
He has been declared the winner of the Saturday, March 18, 2023, governorship election in Oyo State by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Makinde, the incumbent governor defeated his closest challengers, candidates of the serving Senator, Teslim Folarin representing the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Adebayo Adelabu of the Accord Party (AP).
INEC Returning Officer, Prof Adebayo Bamire, announcing the results Sunday afternoon said Makinde won in 31 of the 33 Local Governments in Oyo State and polled 563,756 votes to defeat his closest rival, Teslim Folarin of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who won in two local government areas and polling 256,685 votes.
He said Adebayo Adelabu who is the Accord Party’s candidate in the governorship race came third polling a total of 38,357 votes.
Prof Bamire, who is the Vice Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in Osun State announced the PDP governorship candidate as the winner of the election in Oyo State having met the conditions set for the election by Nigerian laws.
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He said a total of 14,920 votes were rejected of the 889,592 votes cast.
“That Makinde Oluseyi Abiodun of the PDP, having satisfied the requirement of the law is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected by the Returning Officer, Prof Adebayo Simeon on this day 19th of March 2023,” INEC’s Returning Officer in the state, Prof Bamire said, in his declaration of Makinde the winner.
Recalled before election day, Makinde had battled a series of challenges stemming from the opposition who threatened and called him out for daring to seek a second term in office after the coalition arrangement that fetched him the first term victory crumbled.
Likewise, he is the last of the PDP G5 Governors or Integrity Group who returned to office in a reelection bid. Others four lost.
His colleagues in G5, Governors Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) and Samuel Ortom (Benue), who have completed their two terms of eight years each, all lost their senatorial bids while Nyesom Wike (Rivers) who is also completing his second term as Governor didn’t run for any elective position. He had contested in the PDP’s presidential primaries and lost out.
It was the defeat of three of his fellows at the G5 that also made all eyes to be on Makinde before the March 18 poll, and the fact that he didn’t endorse the presidential candidate of his party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, also fetched him some forms of criticism within and outside his party’s structures.
But now that INEC had declared Makinde as the substantive winner of the governorship election in his state, he has scaled all hurdles successfully as he defeated all opposition to his second term bid.
Governorship and assembly elections were held in 28 of Nigeria out of its 36 states on Saturday, March 18, 2023, this was a week later than initially scheduled after a court case forced INEC to shift the elections’ date by a week.
The eight of the 36 states where elections did not hold are Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Osun, and Ondo, as their governorship elections are now “off-season” due to litigations and court judgements.
The 28 states where governorship and assembly elections were held on March 18 are Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara.
Out of the 28 states, 11 serving governors including Makinde sought reelection while 17 outgoing governors are in the final weeks of their constitutional two-term limits of eight years, having been sworn in on May 29, 2015.
