Ikpeazu wins Abia gov election

…APC, APGA rejects result

BY: Ikenna Oluka

Also, the candidate of the PDP in Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu, has been declared the winner of the governorship election in the state.

INEC’s Returning Officer, Prof. Benjamin Ozumba, who is also the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, declared him winner after polling 261, 127 to defeat his closest rival and candidate of  the APC, Uche Ogah, who garnered 99,574 votes.

He also announced that the candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, Alex Otti, polled 64, 366 votes to come third in the election.

Meanwhile, the candidates of the APC and APGA have called for the cancellation of the election.

Addressing journalists shortly after the results were declared in Umuahia, the state capital, the opposition candidates alleged that INEC breached its guidelines for the conduct of the elections in the state.

In a statement jointly signed by the candidates, they stated that they had expected INEC to cancel results from polling units where votes did not match what was on  the smart card readers, adding that reverse was the case.

The statement partly read, “The results were highly tempered with to favour the PDP, even where some of us in the opposition had warned that INEC connived with security agencies to change the result in favour of the PDP.

“We reject in totality the results of the 2019 governorship election as announced by INEC and demand its total cancellation in the entire state.”