The United States Consulate General in Nigeria has commended the Independent National Electoral Commission over the conduct of the June 18 governorship election in Ekiti State.
In a statement on Wednesday by its Public Affairs Section, the Consulate said the Bi-Modal Verification Accreditation System used in the election “functioned properly” in most of the 177 polling units across the 16 local government areas of the state.
Premium Politics had earlier reported that INEC declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Biodun Oyebanji, the winner of the Ekiti governorship election last Saturday.
INEC said the APC candidate scored 187,057 votes to defeat Social Democratic Party’s Segun Oni, who polled 82,211 votes, while Peoples Democratic Party’s Bisi Kolawole garnered 67,457 votes.
The total valid votes in the election out of the 360,753 votes cast was 351,865.
The election was said to have been marred by vote-buying and violence is some polling units.
However, the US consulate in its statement titled, ‘Statement on the Concluded Ekiti State Gubernatorial Election’, hailed the electoral umpire.
The statement read, “The United States Mission to Nigeria congratulates the citizens of Ekiti State on the largely peaceful conduct of the gubernatorial election on June 18.
“We commend the concerted efforts of INEC staff and security personnel which helped facilitate a secure election with a credible outcome.
“We note the election’s technical improvements including that the newly adopted bi-modal verification accreditation system functioned properly in the vast majority of polling stations.
“We encourage all citizens to register to vote as the country moves towards national elections.”
