2023 Kogi State gubernatorial election
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| Turnout | 40.98% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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LGA results Ododo: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% >90% Ajaka: 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% Abejide: 40–50% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2023 Kogi State gubernatorial election was held on 11 November 2023 to elect the Governor of Kogi State. Incumbent APC Governor Yahaya Bello was term-limited and could not seek re-election to a third term in office. Ahmed Usman Ododo — a former state Auditor-General for Local Government — retained the office for the APC by a margin of 24% over first runner-up and SDP nominee Murtala Ajaka.
The primaries were scheduled for between 27 March and 17 April 2022 with the All Progressives Congress nominating Ododo on 15 April while the Peoples Democratic Party nominated former Senator for Kogi West Dino Melaye on 16 April. On 20 May, Ajaka — a former APC aspirant and national APC official — won the nomination of the Social Democratic Party in a rerun primary.
After collation completed on the day after the election, INEC declared Ododo as the victor. In the official results, Ododo gained over 446,000 votes (~57% of the vote) to defeat Ajaka with about 259,000 votes (33% of the vote) and Melaye with about 46,000 votes (~6% of the vote). The results were immediately rejected by the runners-up due to widespread reports of irregularities, with candidates and media focusing attention upon three central LGAs — Adavi, Okehi, and Okene — where both the turnout (83.9%) and Ododo vote share (97.1%) were extremely high. Although he initially stated that he would not challenge the results due to distrust in INEC and the judiciary, Ajaka ultimately filed legal petitions against the election. The legal case eventually reached the Supreme Court, which upheld the election of Ododo in a ruling in August 2024.