Incumbent Governor Biodun Oyebanji of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been declared winner of the 2026 Ekiti State governorship election after securing a decisive victory across all 16 local government areas of the state.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced the result in the early hours of Sunday through the Returning Officer, Adenike Oladiji, who declared that Oyebanji polled 319,224 votes.
His closest challenger, Oluwole Oluyede of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), received 40,543 votes, while Dare Bejide of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) secured 12,872 votes.
According to INEC, 384,940 voters were accredited for the election. The commission recorded 375,777 valid votes and 6,332 rejected ballots.
Voting commenced at about 8:31 a.m. on Saturday and officially ended at 2:30 p.m., although some polling units remained open later to allow eligible voters who were already in queues to cast their ballots.
The election witnessed a number of concerns raised by opposition candidates and election observers. Oluyede complained about BVAS accreditation challenges at his polling unit in Ikere Local Government Area, while Bejide alleged incidents of vote-buying during the exercise.
Observer group Yiaga Africa reported 24 incidents of violence across 10 local government areas and later raised concerns over inconsistencies in ballot papers. However, security authorities maintained that the election was largely peaceful.
The Commissioner of Police overseeing election security, Abayomi Shogunle, said officers had not received reports of vote-buying during the exercise, although one suspect was arrested for alleged ballot box snatching.
INEC also stated that all 2,445 polling units opened for the election, with more than 92 per cent commencing operations before 8:30 a.m. The commission further disclosed that nearly 97.2 per cent of polling unit results had been uploaded to its IReV portal before the commencement of final collation.
With the victory, Oyebanji secures a fresh mandate as governor and strengthens the APC’s hold on Ekiti State after sweeping all 16 local government areas in the election.
