The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Alex Otti, the candidate of the Labour Party (LP) as the winner of the gubernatorial elections conducted on 18th March, 2023.
The Returning Officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the state, Prof Nnenna Nnannaya-Oti declared Otti the winner on Wednesday evening at the resumption of the final collation of governorship election results in Umuahia, the Abia State capital over 48 hours after INEC suspended the exercise in the South-East state.
In an announcement at the collation center in Umuahia, INEC stated that Alex Otti got a total of 175,467 votes, followed by Okey Ahiwe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who polled 88,529 votes, while Enyinnaya Nwafor of the Young Peoples Party (YPP) got 28,972 votes.
Before the announcement, Nnannaya-Oti said she will do the right of the people and protect democratic values.
“I shall stand squarely and unapologetically on these principles. The people’s votes and mandate shall stand.
“The pastor and the mother in me will not permit me to do anything that will adversely affect the future of our children,” said Nnannaya-Oti, who is the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri.
INEC had on Wednesday resumed the collation of Governorship election results in Abia State alongside that of Enugu State after suspension of the process earlier in the week.
Collation of results were suspended following allegations of over-voting in Obingwa Local Government Area.
INEC, after ironing out issues with the disputed results, Wednesday morning, announced that collation would resume at the Collation Centre located inside its office in Umuahia.
Prior to the resumption of collation the governorship candidate of the Labour Party, Dr Alex Otti, already has over 92,000 votes ahead of other candidates.
INEC stated that for Obinwga LGA with 11 wards, PDP got 9,962 votes, LP got 3,776 votes, APGA got 1,445 votes and APC got 721 votes.
The last time the LP produced a governor in the last 20 years was when Olusegun Mimiko was elected Ondo State governor from February 2009 to February 2017.
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party won the February 25 presidential election with 327,095 votes, while his closest challenger, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came a distant second with 22,676 votes.
See results by parties:
A 1528
AA 474
AAC 298
ADC 2529
ADP 601
APC 24091
APGA 18119
APM 572
APP 11728
BP 1141
LP 175467
NNPP 2068
NRM 472
PDP 88529
PRP 168
SDP 773
YPP 28972
ZLP 1011
A total of 381,683 valid votes were recorded in the presidential elections.
Nnamdi Maduakor is a Writer, Investor and Entrepreneur
