Incumbent governor of Imo state, Rochas Okorocha, has emerged winner of Saturday’s supplementary governorship election in the state.
Mr. Okorocha, the candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) won in 20 out of the 23 Local Government areas in the state where the supplementary election was held, polling a total of 31,326 votes.
His closest challenger, Emeka Ihedioha, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) garnered 13,624 votes. The outcome of Saturday’s election effectively truncated Mr Ihedioha’s of overtaking the governor and winning the election. The PDP candidate trailed Mr. Okorocha with 79,525 votes in the substantive election a forth night ago.
The result of the election was declared inconclusive by the Returning Officer, Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obe, two weeks ago because the margin of victory between the top two contenders – the APC and the PDP – was less than the number of registered voters in areas where elections did not hold or was cancelled due to irregularities, thus necessitating a supplementary election, as required by the electoral law.
Announcing the total result (substantive and supplementary) polled by the candidates in the early hours of Sunday, Mr. Obe declared Mr. Okorocha winner, having polled the highest number of votes and having satisfied the requirement of the law. Mr Okorocha polled a total of 416,996 votes out of the total 806,764 votes cast in the election. Coming a second was Mr. Ihedioha with 320,705 and Emmanuel Ihenacho of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in distant third with 28,434 votes.
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Okezie Ikpeazu, has been declared winner of the governorship election in Abia. The INEC returning officer in the state, Prof. Ozumba, while announcing the result at about 4:54am Sunday, in Umuahia, said Mr. Ikpeazu polled a total of 264,713 votes to beat his closest challenger Alex Otti of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, who garnered 180, 882 votes.
Mr. Otti is a former Managing Director of Diamond Bank.
