Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State has cleared 18 of the 20 local government (LGs) in the March 18 governorship election conducted in the state.
The incumbent governor has won in all the 18 LGAs out of the 19 announced so far by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Sanwo-Olu won with 32,273 votes in Ikeja, the LGA of Rhodes-Vivour, the candidate of Labour Party who had 15,174 votes.
The election is a three-horse race between incumbent Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of ruling APC, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour (GRV) of the Labour Party and Adediran Abdul-Azeez (Jandor) of the Peoples Democratic Party.
The incumbent governor who is seeking reelection has 718,595 votes at the collation of 15 local government results on Sunday.
He is ahead of LP’s Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour who presently has 257,502 from the 15 LGs announced so far.
Sanwo-Olu won Lagos Island, Apapa, Epe, Agege, Ajeromi Ifelodun, Ikeja, Mushin, Surulere, Ibeju-Lekki, Ifako-Ijaiye, Badagry, Lagos Mainland, Alimisho, Ojo, Ikorodu, Kosofe, Oshodi-Isolo, and Somolu while the LP candidate won in Amuwo Odofin.
Sanwo-Olu is also ahead of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidte, Olajide Adediran aka Jandor who has 59,172 votes from the 15 local governments.
The state collation officer said votes were still being expected from one more local government — Eti-Osa — which covers the Victoria Garden City (VGC) where elections were shifted in 10 polling units from Saturday to Sunday.
Channels Television reports that Governorship elections were held in 28 of Nigeria’s 36 states on Saturday. The governorship and state assembly elections were held a week later than initially scheduled after a court case forced INEC to move them forward.
Eight of the 36 states — Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Osun, and Ondo — have governorship elections “off-season” due to litigations and court judgements.
The 28 states where governorship elections were on March 18 are Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara
Of the 28 states, 11 serving governors including Sanwo-Olu are seeking reelection while 17 outgoing governors are in the final weeks of their constitutional two-term limits of eight years, having been sworn in on May 29, 2015.