The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Siminialayi Fubara has been declared the winner of the Rivers State governorship election.
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In an announcement on Monday night, the State Returning Officer, Professor Akpofure Rim-Rukeh stated that the PDP candidate polled 302, 614 votes to defeat his closest rival Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who scored 95,274 votes while the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate, Senator Magnus Abe, and Labour Party (LP)’s, Beatrice Itubo came a distant third and fourth with 46,981 and 22,224 votes respectively.
Declaring Fubara the winner, he said: “I, Professor Akpofura Rim-Rukeh, vice-chancellor, Federal University of Petroleum Resources, hereby declare the results of the 2023 governorship election held on the 18th of March, 2023.
“That Fubara Siminialayi of the PDP having scored the highest votes and having the certified percent spread with a satisfactory margin of lead, having satisfied the requirement of the law is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected.”
A total of 496,852 voters were accredited for the March 18 governorship election out of the 3,537,190 registered voters in the State. 494,604 total votes cast, 483,934 were valid while 10, 670 were rejected votes.
Channels TV reported that all party agents at the State Collation Centre rejected the results aside from the PDP, saying the figures were allegedly allocated.
Sim Fubara was anointed by the incumbent Governor Nyesom Wike who is in the last weeks of his two-term of eight years.
Vanguard reported that according to the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Sim Fubara won all 23 LGAs in Rivers State.
In the Presidential election held on 25th February, 2023, INEC announced that for Rivers State, Tinubu polled 231,591 votes to beat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party’s Peter Obi. The Labour Party scored 175,071 and the Peoples Democratic Party 88,468 to come second and third, respectively.
605,055 voters were accredited to vote in the presidential election, and out of the 553,944 total votes cast, 523,651 were valid while 30,293 were rejected.
Nnamdi Maduakor is a Writer, Investor and Entrepreneur
