Ododo taking his oath of office as Kogi governor

An accountant, Usman Ahmed Ododo was sworn in as the fifth executive governor of Kogi State on Saturday at a ceremony witnessed by his predecessor, Yahaya Bello, Vice President Kashim Shettima, the National Chairman of All Progressives Congress, APC and other dignitaries.

Ododo was sworn in at around 2:24 pm in Lokoja immediately after his deputy Salifu Joel Oyibo took his oath of office

The APC candidate was declared the winner after collation of results from the 21 local government areas of the state.

Ododo won the November 11 Kogi governorship election as he scored 446, 237 votes to defeat the candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Muritala Ajaka who came second in the election with 259,052 votes while Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP came third with 46362 votes.

Ododo was declared the winner of the election having satisfied all the constitutional requirements.

The 41-year-old defeated 17 other candidates in the election that was highly influenced by ethnic sentiments and cash.

The state Returning Officer, Prof. Johnson Urame, while declaring the result, said, “Ahmed Usman Ododo, having satisfied the requirements of the law, is here declared the winner of the election and is returned elected”

Until his foray into the governorship race, Ododo was Auditor General for Local Governments and supervised the controversial screening and staff verification exercise in the state.

He defeated more than 10 aspirants to pick the APC governorship ticket in April.