Following a week’s shift, Nigerians, today (Saturday, March 18, 2023), returned to their polling units to decide their governors and state assembly members for the next four years.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) began the distribution of sensitive and nonsensitive election materials on Wednesday, March 15, across the country. This exercise continued till this morning when polling units were expected to open by 8:00 a.m.

Elections into states’ House of Assembly will be held in the states of the federation but only in 28 states would the governorship election be held. 

Newsrand will thereby provide nationwide coverage of the election proceedings in this post

INEC Declares Adamawa Governorship Election Inconclusive

INEC has declared the governorship election in Adamawa State inconclusive.

Although final results tallied by INEC showed that Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of the PDP scored the highest votes, INEC said the cancelled votes were more than the margin of victory between Mr Fintiri and the runner-up, Aisha Dahiru of the APC.

A new date will be fixed for re-run elections in areas where elections could not hold in the state.

At the end of the official tally of results, Mr Fintiri defeated Mrs Dahiru, popularly called Binani, with a margin of over 30,000 votes.

The incumbent governor scored 421,524 votes while Mrs Dahiru won 390,275 votes.

Fintiri also won the election in 13 of Adamawa’s 21 local government areas while Binani won in the remaining eight.

INEC Suspends Collation Of Election Results In Abia And Enugu States

INEC has suspended further collation of governorship election results in some parts of Abia and Enugu states.

This was made known in a statement signed by the National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye on Monday.

It will be recalled that INEC’s office in Obingwa Local Government Area in Abia State was invaded by thugs on Sunday, March 19, 2023, and its officials were held hostage in relation to the collation of results from the Local Government Area.

Similarly, reports from Enugu State called for a review of the results of the governorship election from the two outstanding Local Government Areas of Nsukka and Nkanu East.

INEC Declares Governorship Election In Kebbi Inconclusive

INEC’s REC in Kebbi Professor Yusuf Saidu, on Monday, March 20, 2023, declared the governorship election in the state inconclusive over what he described as irregularities that marred elections in 18 local government areas of the state.

The returning officer quoted some sections from the electoral law which gave him the power to declare the results inconclusive.

Dapo Abiodun Re-elected For Second Term

Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State has been re-elected for a second term after polling 276,298 votes.

Abiodun defeated the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the state, Oladipupo Adebutu, who polled 262,383 votes, and 12 other candidates.

Confusion As Crisis Erupt At VGC

There was confusion on Sunday, March 19, 2023, at the Victoria Garden City (VGC) area of Lagos State, as the electorate clashed over the time to end the elections.

Trouble began at 2.20pm when one of the residents of VGC, On-air personality, Ik Osakioduwa, took the microphone to announce that everyone on the queue should sit under the canopy labeled polling unit 033 as those not on the queue by 2.30pm would not be allowed to join and vote.

He had barely made this announcement when one of the agents in the crowd shouted at him to sit down insisting that the announcement was not necessary.

It further led to a shouting match when some party agents wearing the APC tags insisted that voting must end by 2.30pm.

The residents resisted the move describing the APC agents as infiltrators who were not even residents of the estate.

There was a bit of pushing and shoving and plenty of shouting until the policemen on duty took charge and secured the polling unit by keeping everyone at bay.

Normalcy has, however, returned, with INEC officials keeping mum on the crises.

Voting is, however, still ongoing as the residents insist that the INEC guidelines stipulate that everyone on the queue as at 2.30pm must be allowed to vote.

INEC Declares Makinde Winner Of Oyo Guber

INEC has announced Governor Seyi Makinde as the winner of the state’s gubernatorial election.

Makinde, according to the commission, triumphed with 563,756 votes.

INEC Postpones Results Collation In Kaduna

INEC in Kaduna State has postponed the collation of results for the governorship and state assembly elections in the state to 2 pm Sunday, March 9, 2023.

The commission had scheduled the commencement of the collation of results in the elections conducted on Saturday for 10 am on Sunday.

However, as of the time of filing the report, only the results from Kaura Local Government Area out of the 23 LGAs had arrived.

Obasa Secures His Re-election Bid

Mudashiru Obasa, the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, has been elected for a sixth term to represent Agege 1 constituency in the state assembly.

The INEC Returning Officer for the Agege constituency election, Dr. Lukman Adeniji, made the declaration at the Collation Centre in Orile Agege.

He said that eight political parties fielded candidates for the election held on Saturday.

According to him, Obasa secured 17,214 votes to beat Raheem Alani of the Labour Party who had 3,933, Kafayat Biobaku of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) with 62 votes while the Peoples Democratic Party got 1,609 votes.

Police Confirm Killing Of LP Chairman In Rivers

The Nigeria Police Force (NPF), on Sunday, confirmed the killing of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman for Ezza North Local Government Area of Rivers State, Peter Mweke.

Dismissing reports that Mweke was shot dead, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Onome Onovwakpoyeya said that the victim was beaten up by suspected political thugs, who invaded polling units in Ezza North LG and disrupted voting.

INEC Postpones Elections In 10 Polling Units In VGC, Lagos

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has postponed Saturday’s governorship and state assembly elections in 10 polling units in the Victoria Garden City (VGC) around the Lekki area of the state.

INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Segun Agbaje made the announcement when he addressed reporters at the VGC.

According to him, corps members deployed as ad hoc staff on Saturday were hesitant to enter the VGC estate as they alleged that they were held hostage in the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections.

Agbaje said the commission’s ad hoc staff set up voting materials in front of the estate on Saturday but the estate residents claimed that hoodlums might disrupt the process, so they did not feel secure and could not cast their votes.

He said the situation was difficult for security agents to contain hence he and his team had to come to the area.

“We have eight polling units here with 6,024 registered voters and out of which 5,624 people have their PVCs,” he stated, adding that two other polling units at the estate’s main gate were also affected. “Eight here (in the estate) and two outside,” he noted.

“After due consultation and further directive from the national headquarters that we should remobilise here tomorrow (Sunday) morning by 08:30am to conduct the elections.

“By 08:30am tomorrow (Sunday), we will reconvene here.”

No INEC officials’ presence at Rhodes-Vivour’s polling unit as of 8:24am

As of 8:24 am on Election Day, there was no presence of officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission at polling unit 045 in Anifowoshe, Ikeja, Lagos State, where the Labour Party governorship candidate for the state, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, will be casting his vote.

However, security officers were on the ground as of the time of filing this report.

Police mount roadblock at Berger, Lagos

The Nigeria Police Force has mounted roadblocks at the Berger axis on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to enforce movement restrictions ahead of the governorship election on Saturday.