President Muhammadu Buhari has advised Yahaya Bello who has just been formally declared winner of the Saturday, November 16 election in Kogi State to be magnanimous in victory.
In a message of congratulation to the governor, who was re-elected for a second term of four years, asked him “to imbibe the spirit of magnanimity in victory by extending a hand of partnership to opposition candidates.
The President advised those dissatisfied with the outcome of the election to approach the courts, even as he condoled with families of those who lost their lives in the violence that greeted the election in some parts of the State.
The President called on all political actors and stakeholders to take deliberate steps to eschew electoral violence as a peaceful and orderly process is vital to our quest for enduring democracy.
Yahaya Bello had earlier in the day, been declared winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), defeating his closest rival, Engineer Musa Wada of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
The INEC Returning Officer, Professor Ibrahim Garba, who announed the results in Lokoja today, November 18, said that Yahaya Bello polled 406,222 votes to beat 24 other contestants, including Musa Wadawho polled 189,704 votes.
Mrs Natasha Akpoti, the candidaye of the Social Democratic Party came third by scoring 9,482 votes, Mrs Justina Abanida of the African Democratic Party scored 706 votes to come fourth while the candidate of PDF came fifth with 624 votes.
Garba said that Bello having scored the majority of votes and other constitutional requirements is declared the winner.
He said that 636,202 out of the 1,636,350 registered voters in the state were accredited for the election out of which 624,514 evetually voted.
Garba gave total valid votes cast during the election as 610,744 , number of rejected votes was 13,770 while cancelled votes were 149,576 votes.
