Kogi election result validates, confirms our report-Yiaga Africa

An election observer group, Yiaga Africa, has said the result of the November 11 governorship election in Kogi State corroborated its earlier report drawn from 278 of the 286 sampled polling units during the poll.

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.

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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 on Monday 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 percent) sampled polling units, Yiaga Africa’s statistical analysis shows that the All Progressives Congress should receive between 47.0 percent and 59.0 percent of the vote.

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“Peoples Democratic Party should receive between 4.8 percent and 7.4 percent and Social Democratic Party should receive between 31 percent and 42.4 percent of the vote. No other political party should receive more than 1.2 percent 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 percent and 43.6 percent (39.0 percent ± 4.6 percent) while INEC’s official turnout is 40 percent.

“Similarly, Yiaga Africa estimates rejected ballots are between 0.9 percent and 1.5 percent (1.2 percent + 0.3 percent) while INEC’s official rejected ballots number is 1.45 percent.

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“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 centers, the official results would not have fallen within the Yiaga Africa WTV estimated ranges.”