Dr. Alex Otti of the Labour Party (LP) has been declared the winner of the March 18 governorship election in Abia by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He was declared the winner on Wednesday by the State Returning Officer and Vice Chancellor of the Federal University, Owerri, Prof. Nnenna Oti at the State Collation Centre, INEC, Umuahia.
Prof. Oti said that LP polled 175,467 votes to defeat his closest rival, Chief Okey Ahiwe of the People’s Democratic Party, who polled 88,529 votes.
Chief Enyinnaya Nwafor of the Young Progressives Party scored 28972 votes, while Chief Ikechi Emenike of the All Progressives Congress (APC) polled 24,091 to emerge in third and fourth positions, respectively.
Oti said, “Alex Otti of LP having satisfied the requirements of the law is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the controversies surrounding the result from Obingwa Local Government Area were earlier put to rest at the resumption of the collation of the result on Wednesday.
The Collation Officer for Obingwa LGA, Dr. Chimaroke Onyeabo, announced that PDP polled 9,962, while LP scored 3776 votes of the 27,664 accredited voters.
INEC had on Tuesday ordered the suspension of the collation of the result, following the alleged invasion of the INEC office in the LGA and hostage-taking of the LG Returning Officer.
In a remark, Oti said that “the pastor and mother in me would not allow me to go against Abia people’s voice and mandate”.
NAN reports that the state had been ruled by PDP since the return of democracy in 1999.
Meanwhile, the declaration of Otti as the governor was received with wild jubilation by residents of Umuahia, Aba, Arochukwu (Otti’s ancestral community), and other parts of the state.
The tension went high in the state, following the suspension of collation and subjecting the Obingwa result to review by INEC in Abuja.
(NAN)
