Gbajabiamila elected for sixth time as federal lawmaker

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has won the Surulere I Federal Constituency election held on Saturday.

Virgy Oneyene, the INEC returning officer for the House of Representatives election in the constituency, declared the results at INEC’s collation centre in Surulere at about 6.04 p.m. on Sunday.

According to her, Mr Gbajabiamila of APC won 19,717 votes, while Jeje of the Peoples Democratic Party came second with 5,121 votes.

The returning officer said Mathew Idowu of the Social Democratic Party had 838 votes; Benedicta Uba of Zenith Labour Party had 660 votes; Ademola Oshinaya of New Nigeria Peoples Party had 623 votes, and Lumumba Savage of Party A 337 votes.

“At the end of voting, Femi Gbajabiamila of APC has satisfied the requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes and is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected,” she said.

The Speaker was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2003 to represent Surulere 1 Federal Constituency. Since then, he has won elections in the subsequent five election cycles, including Saturday’s election.

In his 20-year journey in the House of Representatives so far, Gbajabiamila has served as Minority Whip, Minority Leader, Opposition Leader, and Majority Leader before getting elected as Speaker in 2019.