Makinde wins Oyo state in governorship election 

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) candidate, Seyi Makinde, winner of the Oyo State gubernatorial election. 

Makinde polled a total of 563,617 votes while his closest rival, Sen. Teslim Folarin scored 251,230. Adebayo Adelabu of the Accord came a distant third polling 38,757.

Makinde is the last of the PDP G5 or Integrity Group with an election. Already, Governors Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) and Samuel Ortom (Benue), who have been in office for eight years each, all lost their senatorial bid while Nyesom Wike (Rivers) who is also completing his second term as Governor didn’t run for any elective post.

With the defeat of three of his comrades, all eyes were on Makinde to see how he would fare in the  March 18th gubernatorial poll. With his declaration as the winner by INEC, Makinde survived the defeat suffered by other G5 members.

Governorship elections were held in 28 of Nigeria’s 36 states on Saturday. The governorship and state assembly elections were held a week later than initially scheduled after a court case forced INEC to move them forward.

Eight of the 36 states-Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Osun, and Ondo-have governorship elections “off-season” due to litigations and court judgements.

The other 28 states where governorship elections were on March 18th 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.

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 29th, 2015.