- PDP’s Peter Mbah wins in Enugu
BY TIMOTHY AGBOR AND BENEDICT NWACHUKWU
There was massive celebration on the streets of Umuahia on Wednesday evening after the candidate of the Labour Party, Alex Otti, was declared the winner of Abia State governorship election.
Otti scored 175, 465 votes to defeat Ambrose Okey Ahaiwe of the People’s Democratic Party who had 88,529 votes.
Otti was declared the winner by Nnenna Oti, the Returning Officer of the Independent National electoral Commission for Abia State, after the collation of the last LGA, Obingwa.
Otti’s victory did not come easy as his victory was delayed for four days, after the controversial 108,000 votes that came from Obingwa LGA, the home of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu.
But after a trip to Abuja by the top brass of INEC from Abia office, the controversial 108,000 votes from Obingwa were reduced to 20,000 valid votes by INEC with PDP scoring only 9,9 62 while Otti got 3,772.
In his acceptance speech, Otti declared: “We have broken down the gates of hell in Abia State and set the people free.”
He regretted that Abia has been held captive for many years by enemies of the state, including the agents of PDP who recently manipulated votes from Obingwa.
Otti noted that the task of rebuilding Abia is enormous but assured that “we must take back our state.”
He extended a hand of sportsmanship to all, pledging not to pursue vendetta against those who wronged him.
The governor-elect also promised to pay workers and pensioners promptly while affirming that Abia State would witness uncommon infrastructural development.
He assured that all sections of Abia State would be developed under his watch as governor of the state, stressing that the era of profligacy is over in Abia as all money belonging to the state would be used in working for the people.
On his part, the spokesman of the Labour Party Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko, has attributed the victory of Otti to God’s handiwork even as he thanked the resilient good people of Abia for remaining resolute in ensuring their mandate was not stolen.
Tanko in a telephone conversation with The Point said it is God and therefore the party remains appreciative to the Almighty God and equally to the good people of Abia who proved their love for “our party, confirming that their massive voting for our presidential candidate Peter Obi is not a fluke.”
He further stated that the party is hopefully waiting for the INEC declaration of Enugu state and believing that the electoral body will not allow itself to be used to snatch the people’s mandate.
Also, the Independent National Electoral Commission has declared the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Peter Mbah, winner of the poll.
Mbah polled 160,895 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Chijioke Edeoga of the Labour Party who garnered 157552 votes.
Declaring the results on Wednesday night, the INEC Returning Officer, Maduebibisi Iwe, a Professor and Vice Chancellor of the University of Agriculture, Umudike, said Mbah got the majority of votes cast and so declared him governor-elect of Enugu State.
Iwe said the issues that made the collation of results suspended had been cleared in Abuja and that the contentious results had been resolved.
The Returning Officer said 381,571 voters were accredited and that the total votes cast were 367,551.
The full results presented by Iwe are, AA- 330; AAC – 146; ADC – 1160; ADP – 382; APC – 14575; APGA -17983; APM-358; APP -158; BP – 319; LP -157552; NNPP -2107; NRM -854; PDP -160,895; PRP -850; YPP -397 and ZLP – 332.
Total valid votes were 358,463 while the total rejected votes were 9,088.
The APC and LP agents refused to sign the results sheet and alleged manipulation.
