The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Usman Ododo, as the winner of the keenly contested election in the state.
Ododo polled 446,237 votes to defeat the Social Democratic Party candidate, Muri Ajaka and Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party, who scored 259, 052 and 46,362 votes, respectively.
Although both Ajaka and Melaye had rejected the outcome of the result, Yiaga Africa, which deployed observers and the Process and Results Verification for Transparency methodology to observe the election, said the outcome of the poll truly reflected what transpired at the polling units.
Speaking further, the election observer group disclosed in a statement issued during its PRVT presentation on the November 11 off-cycle governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States on Monday in Abuja.
The statement read, “Based on reports from 278 of 286 (97.2 per cent) sampled polling units, Yiaga Africa’s statistical analysis shows that the All Progressives Congress should receive between 47.0 per cent and 59.0 per cent of the vote,
“Peoples Democratic Party should receive between 4.8 per cent and 7.4 per cent and Social Democratic Party should receive between 31 per cent and 42.4 per cent of the vote. No other political party should receive more than 1.2 per cent of the vote.
“INEC’s turnout and rejected ballots for the 21 LGAs as announced are consistent with Yiaga Africa WTV PRVT estimates. Yiaga Africa’s turnout estimate is between 34. 4 per cent and 43.6 per cent (39.0 per cent ± 4.6 per cent) while INEC’s official turnout is 40 per cent.
“Similarly, Yiaga Africa estimates rejected ballots are between 0.9 per cent and 1.5 per cent (1.2 per cent + 0.3 per cent) while INEC’s official rejected ballots number is 1.45 per cent.
“INEC official results for the 2023 Kogi State governorship election are consistent with Yiaga Africa’s WTV estimate (specifically, it falls within Yiaga Africa’s WTV estimated range). Had the official results been changed at the ward, LGA, or state collation centres, the official results would not have fallen within the Yiaga Africa WTV estimated ranges.”
