Richard Anyebe
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Labour Party’s Alex Otti as the winner of the Abia State governorship election.
The state’s Returning Officer, Prof. Nnenna Nnannaya-Oti, who announced the results in Umuahia on Wednesday, said Alex Otti polled 175,467 in the election. Okey Ahiwe of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came in second with 88,529.
Enyinnaya Nwafor of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) garnered 28,972 in the exercise.
INEC had on Monday suspended the collation of the election results in Abia and Enugu over the invasion of its facilities in the two states by thugs.
Reports say Alex Otti was clearly in the lead since Sunday. Of the 10 LGAs in by then, LP had polled 65,968 votes, while its closest rival, PDP polled 53,042 votes.
The LGAs include Ukwa East: LP 2273; PDP 2329, Ukwa West: LP 2833; PDP 4622, Bende: LP 9886; PDP 3410, Isialangwa North: LP 7323; PDP 21,741.
Others are Isialangwa South: LP 7589; PDP 9093; Arochukwu: LP 12,689; PDP 1,280, Ugwunagbo: LP 2,153; PDP 2,538, Isuikwuato: LP 8228; PDP 2204, Ikwuano: LP 7054; PDP 2,427 and Umunneochi: LP 5940; PDP 3,198.
With this win, this is the first time Labour Party will produce a state governor since 2009.
In 2009, Nigeria’s apex court, the Supreme Court sacked the late Olusegun Agagu and declared Dr. Olusegun Mimiko as the duly elected governor of Ondo State in the 2007 election.
Mimiko governed Ondo state from February 2009 to February 2017.
He however, defected to the PDP.
In other news, Kanyi Daily reported that the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the February 25th election, Peter Obi has called for the “compassionate” release of the social media influencer, Chude Franklin Nnamdi with the Twitter handle ‘@chude__’, arrested by the police in Anambra State.
