The incumbent Governor of Ondo State, Oluwatomi Rotimi Akeredolu, has been re-elected for another four yeiar-term.
Akeredoku, Senior Advocate of Nigeria who was the candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) at the just concluded Ondo State Governorship elections emerged winner of the election having scored tge highest number of votes 292,830 defeating the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Eyitayo Jegede who was his closest rival in the election with 195,791 while the candidate of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) who is the incumbent deputy governor of the state, Agboola Ajayi scored 69,178 votes.
The result as announced by Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC on Sunday, October 11, showed that Akeredolu had scored 20 per cent of the total number of votes cast in the election and has satisfied the two-third of the geographical spread of the 18 local government areas as prescribed by the electoral law and has been declared the winner by INEC.
How zones voted
As expected by many observers, both Akeredolu and Jegede recorded a landslide victory in their senatorial districts and local government areas.
Ondo North where Akeredolu comes from, the APC led PDP by 62,621 votes while PDP led by 23,996 votes in Ondo Central, the stronghold of Jegede.
ZLP was in a distant third in each of the senatorial districts including Ondo South, the home front of Ajayi, the current deputy governor.
A similar pattern is repeated at local government level as Akeredolu led by 30,646 in Owo LGA while Jegede led by 30,350 in Akure South LGA. Again, Ajayi lost to APC at Ese-Odo, his local government area.
In total, Akeredolu the incumbent governor cleared 15 local government areas including Akoko North East (16,572), Akoko North West (15,809), Akoko South East (9,419) and Akoko South West (21,232).
Others are Idanre (11,286), Ile-Oluji/Oke-Igbo(13,278), Irele (12,643), Okitipupa (19,266), Ondo East(6,485), Ondo West(15,977), Ose (15,122), Owo (35,957), Odigbo(23,571), Ilaje (26,657) and Ese-odo(13,383).
The candidate of PDP won only three local government comprising Akure North (12, 263), Akure South (47,627) and Ifedore (11,852).
History repeated itself
In 2016 governorship election, APC also won by 94,462 votes, scoring 244,842 against 150,380 votes scored by PDP, the closest rival.
In 2012, the Labour Party now known as Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) represented by Olusegun Mimiko won with 260,199 votes. PDP took the second position with 155,961 votes while ACN, now APC scored 143, 512.
By Akeredolu’s emergence, history was once again made in the state as Akeredolu became the fourth governor to govern Ondo State since 1999
Others are Adebayo Adefarati, 1999 to 2003; Olusegun Agagu, 2003 2009; Olusegun Mimiko, 2009 to 2016 and Akeredolu who started in 2017. His second term begins in February 2021.
