The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared incumbent governor and gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, winner of March 18, 2023 governorship election in the state.
The governor won with wide margin in all the 16 local government areas of the state, polling 273, 424 votes to win his second term bid.
He defeated the trio of Shuib Yaman Abdullahi of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 155, 490, son of fomer governor Mohammed Lawal, Hakeem of Social Democratic Party (SDP) who got 18,922 and former vice Chancellor of University of Ilorin, Professor Shuaib AbdulRaheem, of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) who scored 4,398.
With this victory, AbdulRazaq who rode on to power through the Otoge mantra (meaning Enough is Enough) in 2019, became the first governor from the opposition party who will be re- elected for a second term.
Declaring the results, Professor Issac Itodo, vice chancellor, university of Agriculture, Makurdi, and state collation and returning officer for governorship election in the state, said, “the election was held and that governor AbdulRazaq AbdulRazaq of APC haven scored the highest votes and satisfied the requirement of the law is hereby declared winner and returned elected.”
As soon as the news of the declartion broke out, there was wide jubilation in major streets of Ilorin, as scores of residents trooped out to the governor’s family house in Idigba to rejoice with him.