Kogi Poll: 16 Candidates Accept Results, Congratulate Bello

Yahaya Bello, Governor of Kogi State

Sixteen of the candidates that participated in the November 16 governorship election in Kogi State have accepted the results of the election as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Some of the parties include: Green Party of Nigeria, Accord Party, Young Democratic Party, Justice Must Prevail Party, Peoples Party of Nigeria, Africa Action Alliance and National Conscience Party among others.

Forty-five political parties fielded candidates in the election.

Incumbent governor of the state, Yahaya Bello of the All Progressives Congress (APC) won the election by polling a total of 406,222 votes to defeat the PDP candidate, Musa Wada of the Peoples Democratic Party, who scored 189,704 votes.

Addressing a news conference in Lokoja on Monday shortly after the announcement of the election results, the coalition of 16 candidates led by Sani Teidi, the candidate of the Young Democratic Party. urged losers to work with the winner for accelerated development of the state.

“We congratulate His Excellency, Alhaji Yahaya Bello for the overwhelming victory at the poll and all those who participated in the election.

“We appeal to the winner to be magnanimous in victory and prepare to mend fences for an all-inclusive governance.

“We are also appealing to all Kogi stakeholders to accept the winner for participatory governance,” Mr Teidi said.

The candidates condemned the call for cancellation of the election by civil society groups, saying that they did not consider the enormity of waste and loss of lives that may occur in the course of re-running the election.

“All aggrieved political parties should play the game by the rule. Kogi is our state, and the only panacea for development is peace,” he said.