The Social Democratic Party (SDP) says it will win the Nov. 11 governorship election in Kogi by a wide margin.
The SDP South-West Zonal Secretary, Mr Femi Olaniyi, expressed this optimism in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos.
Olaniyi said the party is working hard by taking its campaigns to all voting units in the state to woo the voters to vote for the party.
He said that feelers from the party’s preparations had shown that the electorate in the state wanted the SDP candidate, Alhaji Murtala Ajaka, as the next governor.
“We are winning Kogi hands down. With the support we are receiving from the people of Kogi, it shows that the people are behind our candidate.
“The people of Kogi want Ajaka. Our campaigns have been taken to the grassroots with massive support for our candidate,” Olaniyi, who is also the SDP Chairman in Lagos State, said.
According to him, SDP is also hopeful of winning Kogi considering the defections of some bigwigs from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the party.
Olaniyi advised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to adhere to the rules and follow its promise to transmit election results from polling units electronically to the IREV Portal.
“INEC has promised that the off-cycle governorship elections will be transmitted from polling units in real time to the portal to prevent manipulations that always characterised manual collations of election results at various levels.
“We want INEC to ensure this is done to improve the integrity of the election and renew Nigeria’s trust and confidence in the electoral system,” he said.
NAN reports that voters in Kogi will on Nov. 11 elect a new governor that will take over from Gov. Yahaya Bello on Jan. 27, 2024.
NAN