Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State on Saturday secured the mandate of his people to govern them for another four years as he won the governorship rerun election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress.
Okorocha beat Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party by polling 416,996 votes while Ihedioha 320,705.
The Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate in Abia, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, however, won by beating Dr. Alex Otti of the All Progressive Grand Alliance with 264,713 votes to 180,882.
The PDP’s Darius Ishaku of Taraba State was also coasting ahead of Sen. Aisha Alhassan of the APC going by the results that came in as at press time. For instance, in Kofar Sarki in Takum Local Government polling unit, the PDP had 588 votes against the APC’s 7.
At Suntai Daaji in Donga Local Government Area, the PDP got 1,139 against APC’s 74, while at Asibiti ward in Donga Local Government Area PDP scored 4,412 while APC had 604.
The election which took place in no fewer than seven states only had governorship seats contested in the above named three states while other states like Kogi, Ekiti, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Ebonyi, Gombe and Niger held elections for inconclusive seats in the state Houses of Assembly and the National Assembly.
But the elections on Saturday were marred by voter apathy as most of the polling units in the affected states recorded low turnout of voters.
In Imo State, our correspondent observed that voters at most of the areas designated for the election were scanty, as residents shunned the restriction of movement order by the Police. There were vehicular movements, while some shops opened for business.
It was a similar situation in Irete and Orogwe Wards, where youths were engaged in sporting activities.
Low turnout of voters was also recorded during the supplementary election in Ilejemeje Constituency in Ilejemeje Local Government Area of Ekiti State.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared the election in the LGA inconclusive on April 11 after the cancellation of results from 22 units due to violence.
Mrs. Cecelia Dada of the Peoples Democratic Party and the incumbent, Segun Erinle, of All Progressives Congress were the front runners in the election.
The state Police Commissioner, Mr. Joshua Ibine, had deployed large contingent of policemen to the 22 units in Eda Oniyo, Iludun and Iye Ekiti, where the election took place.
There was also deployment of soldiers and officers of the Department of State Service in the LGA.
It was a similar situation in Abia State where low voter turn-out was witnessed during the supplementary election.
The rerun was held in 299 polling units scattered across nine LGAs in the state, with a total of 175,537 voting population.
In the election earlier held on April 11, the candidate of the ruling PDP, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, had polled 248, 459 votes, ahead of his All Progressives Grand Alliance counterpart, Dr. Alex Otti, who scored 165,406 votes out of the 439,454 total vote cast.
INEC’s Returning Officer, Professor Benjamin Ozumba, had declared the election inconclusive on the grounds that the 83,053 margin of lead was lower than the 175,532 total numbers of registered voters in the polling units where election did not hold or which results were cancelled.
In some of the polling units monitored by our correspondent, accreditation of voters began as early as 8am without hitches as card readers functioned better than it was the case in the previous elections.
However, at Umuobutu/Saint Silas Primary School, Old Umuahia, only 650 voters out of the 1265 registered voters in the centre were accredited.
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