Governor Biodun Oyebanji of All Progressives Congress (APC) has been re-elected as Governor of Ekiti State after recording a sweeping victory in Saturday’s governorship election.
Gatekeepers News reports that Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Oyebanji winner of the poll in the early hours of Sunday after he secured 319,224 votes, defeating his closest rival, Wole Oluyede of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 40,543 votes. African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate, Dare Bejide, came third with 12,872 votes.
Announcing the results at the state collation centre in Ado-Ekiti, the Returning Officer, Adenike Oladiji, said the incumbent governor won in all 16 local government areas of the state.
INEC disclosed that out of 988,251 registered voters, 384,940 were accredited to vote. The election recorded 375,777 valid votes, while 6,332 ballots were rejected, bringing the total votes cast to 382,109.
The victory is regarded as a major milestone for Oyebanji, making him the first incumbent governor in Ekiti State to secure re-election while in office. He also won in all local government areas across the state.
Although the election was largely peaceful, there were reports of alleged vote-buying, voter suppression and BVAS-related challenges in some polling units during the exercise.
Oyebanji, who was first elected governor in 2022, will now begin a second four-year term following his victory at the polls.
