IN OGUN, GOV. ABIODUN DEFEATS PDP’S ADEBUTU

At the Ogun State governorship election held by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Saturday, March 18, 2023, Prince Dapo Abiodun, the current governor of Ogun State and the APC’s candidate for governor, was proclaimed the victor.

Abiodun triumphed in 12 of the State’s Local Government Areas, while Hon. Ladi Adebutu, a candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was victorious in the other eight.

Unexpectedly, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate Barr. Olubiyi Otegbeye, who was supported by Senator Ibikunle Amosun, failed to win any of the local government areas in the State and finished a distant third.

Amosun, a senior member of the current APC and the State’s most recent governor, was thought to have the power to influence the 2023 governorship race in favor of the ADC candidate rather than Abiodun, another member of the party.

According to INEC’s Returning Officer (R.O), Prof. Kayode Adebowale, Abiodun, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), won the governorship election with a total vote total of 276, 298. Adebutu Oladipupo Olatunde, the PDP candidate, came in second place with a total vote total of 262, 383 out of the 645,133 total votes cast.

The PDP in the State, meanwhile, has rejected the results, arguing that the Returning Officer should declare the election inconclusive in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022, given the number of invalid votes being higher than the number of margins of lead between the two candidates.