Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Fuad Laguda of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the Surulere federal constituency 1 bye-election in Lagos state, Southwest nigeria.

Lifestyle Nigeria reports that the returning officer, Simeon Adebayo announced that Laguda scored a total of 11,203 votes.

Meanwhile, his strongest opponent, Adeola Adebanjo of the Labour Party (LP) gathered 240 votes, while Jerry Afemighie of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had 278.

Before Saturday’s bye-election, Laguda had defeated party hopefuls Kabir Lawal, Jamila Omobolanle and Abdul Raheem Owokoniran to pick the party’s ticket during the primary election.

The 46-year-old secured all 30 votes of the delegates that voted in the election.

The former chairman of Surulere will now replace Femi Gbajabiamila, former speaker, in the National Assembly.

Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the Surulere 1 federal constituency in the House of Representatives, Jerry Afemikhe, has commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies over the conduct of the bye-election.

Lifestyle Nigeria reports that Afemikhe, who spoke to reporters before the result was announced, described the election as “calm and without issues.”

NAN quoted Afemikhe as saying, “The election has been calm and without issues. I am quite impressed by INEC and the security agencies’ efforts to conduct a free and fair election.”

A voter, Augustine Alechenu, said he believes whoever wins the election will be a candidate accessible to the people.

Alechenu said, “I expect the winner of this election to be accessible to the people regardless of the constituency they belong to.

“I believe that was one of the strong points of Gbajabiamila who made himself easily accessible to the people of the community up to even the beggars on the street.

“That is why whenever he comes around, you will see a lot of crowd because he had laid a good foundation.”

Meanwhile, INEC has declared Fuad Laguda of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the bye-elections.

The former chairman of Surulere will now replace Femi Gbajabiamila, former speaker, in the National Assembly.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Fuad Laguda, as winner of the Surulere Federal Constituency 1 Bye-Election.

Declaring the results, the Returning Officer for the bye-election, Prof Simeon Adebayo, revealed that the APC candidate scored a total of 11, 203 votes.

Laguda, a former APC chairman in the Surulere Local Government replaces Femi Gbajabiamila who was appointed Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu mid-2023.

Gbajabiamila was the Speaker of the House of Representatives between 2019 and 2023 and had won his re-election into the House for the sixth consecutive term to represent the Surulere 1 Federal Constituency during the February 25 National Assembly election before his appointment as Chief of Staff to the President mid-2023.

Gbajabiamila, one of the strong allies of Tinubu, a former Lagos State governor between May 1999 and May 2007, resigned from the House of Representatives last June and the Speaker Tajudeen Abbas subsequently declared his seat vacant necessitating a bye-election in Surulere Constituency 1 to fill the seat.

See Full Result Of Saturday’s Bye-Election: 

ADC- 40
APC- 11, 203
APGA- 6
APM- 7
APP- 4
LP- 240
NNPP- 8
PDP- 278
SDP- 2
YPP- 9
ZLP- 4