PDP Wins Kogi East Senatorial Rerun Poll

• APC wins Owerri West, other results declared inconclusive

By Yekini Jimoh in Lokoja with agency report

A former Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Isaac Alfa, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been declared the winner of the Kogi East senatorial re-run elections held at the weekend just as the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Mr. Foluso Adebanjo, leader of the police team for the rerun commended the people of the state for peaceful election.

The former Chief of Air Staff scored a total votes of 57, 575 to defeat five other candidates.

Professor Lucky Ovwhasa who was the returning officer for the election while announcing the result in Idah, said Alfa was declared winner after polling the highest number votes.

He said the candidates of ACPN, KOWA, MPPP, UPP and the Labour Party scored 1,793, 888, 498, 349 and 11,908 votes  respectively in the election. The senatorial rerun election was held in eight out of the nine local governments in Kogi East senatorial district. They are: Bassa, Dekina, Ankpa, Olamaboro, Ofu, Idah, Igalamela/Odolu and Ibaji.

The election was held in 236 out of the 1,080 polling units in the senatorial district while only 140,297 out of the 643,559 registered voters in the area participated in the election.

A total of 1,390 personnel conducted the election.

The ruling party, the All Progressives Congress  (APC) did not participate in the election due to an Appeal Court judgment banning it from fielding  a candidate.

The Returning Officer of the Idah state constituency re-run election, Professor Femi Ajayi had late Saturday evening announced Hon. Haruna Idoko of the APC as the winner of the election.

Idoko polled 8,346 votes to beat his closest rival, Hon. James Ukwubile of the PDP who scored 8,274 votes.

The result of Ofu state constituency re-run election is still being awaited.

Meanwhile, INEC has declared as “inclusive,” the Okigwe senatorial zone re-run election, while the APC candidate for Owerri West assembly seat won the electoral contest.

The commission however declared the result of Imo North senatorial district rerun election inconclusive. It also declared inconclusive the results of Oru East and Isiala Mbano State Constituencies following reported cases of violence which characterised the exercise in some communities in the two affected areas.

Exchange of gunfire was reported at Okata and Amiri in Oru East, while skirmishes and snatching of ballot boxes characterised the election in some communities in Isiala Mbano area.

Prof. Arinze Agbogu, the INEC Returning Officer for Imo North senatorial district who announced the result yesterday, however said that Mr Ben Uwajumogu, APC’s senatorial candidate, polled 48,921.

Agbogu also announced that PDP’s Athan Achonu scored 40,142 votes to emerge second in the already declared result.

Acording to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), he explained that results of several polling units in Isiala Mbano area were characterised by irregularities leading to cancelation of the results.

Agbogu explained that the exercise was cancelled in 15 polling units with a total of 13,000 registered voters.

According to him, the difference between the candidate with the highest score and the second stood at 8,777 votes.