LP wins Abia, PDP takes Enugu
- •Otti, Mbah are governors-elect
Top banker Alex Otti and oil magnate Peter Mbah were last night declared winners of the governorship elections in Abia and Enugu states by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Otti’s hard-won victory makes him Labour Party’s (LP’s) only governor-elect. He polled 175, 467 votes to defeat his closest rival, Okey Ahiwe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who got 88, 529 votes.
Mbah of the PDP was declared Enugu governor-elect with 160,895 votes to defeat his LP contender Chijioke Edeoga who garnered 157,552 votes.
The INEC State Returning Officer for Abia, Prof Nnenna Oti, Vice Chancellor, Federal University of Technology (FUTO), Owerri, Imo State, said Otti and Ahiwe were trailed by Enyinnaya Nwafor of the Young Progressive Party (YPP) with 28, 972 votes.
Reacting to the victory, the Director General of Alex Otti campaign, Acho Obioma described Otti’s victory of as triumph of good over evil.
Obioma, while thanking Abia voters for their support, promised that the governor-elect would run an inclusive government.
In his acceptance speech, Otti said: “Before I go on, I must first dedicate this victory to God the Father Almighty, who makes everything beautiful in His own time. I also dedicate it to the millions of Abia citizens who have been the unfortunate victims of bad governance these past decades.
“As I acknowledge this victory, I am fully conscious of the huge expectations of millions of the good people of Abia, who have been denied the dividends of democracy and good governance for such a long time. I want to sincerely thank every Abian and non-indigene alike who participated in this election.
“As you are all aware, this was my third attempt at contesting for this office, in my quest to implement my long-held vision of rebuilding Abia state as truly God’s own state.
“At this third attempt, it pleased God to give us victory. In the words of one LP stalwart, ‘The Siege Is Over’! With our votes and the collective will of the people, we have “broken the gates of hell and cast its bars of iron asunder”. As recorded in the holy book, the kingdom of hell shall not prevail against us.
“I would like to quickly compliment my colleagues in the just-concluded elections, Chief Sir Okechukwu Ahiwe, Engr Enyinnaya Nwafor, High Chief Ikechi Emenike, Prof Gregory Ibe, and a host of other equally qualified governorship candidates. It has been a hard-fought contest and each of you gave his or her best in the quest to serve our beloved State.
“There is no doubt that all of us have very robust ideas as to how to move our dear State forward. I want to assure you that your ideas and dreams that are consistent with building a virile Abia state shall come to fruition under my watch.
“I therefore invite all of you to join hands with our administration in order to serve Abians who have been victims of several years of maladministration and state capture. I have no doubt that you will be available to use the same energy and intellect, to help rebuild our state and develop our people.”
Governor Okezie Ikpeazu sent a message of congratulations to Otti.
In the statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Onyebuchi Ememanka, the governor noted that “Otti has fought a long battle over a very long period of time and deserves commendation for his staying power and resilience.”
He quoted the governor as saying: “Since we have come to the logical end of this battle, it is appropriate to congratulate the winner, Dr Alex Otti on his hard fought victory.
“In every battle, there will always be a winner and in the spirit of sportsmanship and love for our state, the Governor elect must see his victory as a higher call to service to the people of Abia State.”
In Enugu yesterday, Mbah and Edeoga were trailed by Frank Nweke Jnr of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA). He got 17,983 votes.
Chief Uche Nnaji of the All Progressives Congress (APC) scored 14,575 votes to come a distant fourth.
INEC’s Returning Officer, Prof Maduebibisi Ofo Iwe, declared Mbah the winner Wednesday evening at the resumption of the final collation of governorship election results in Enugu, 48 hours after INEC suspended the exercise.
Before the announcement, Prof. Iwe said he was requested to come to Enugu because the commission had concluded the review of the results of Nkanu East and Nsukka local government arears.
He said: “We have come back to conclude the collation of results. We received some petitions particularly against Nsukka and Nkanu East local government areas and these things were taken to Abuja for resolution.
”The petition against Nsukka was overruled. That means whatever anybody had against Nsukka was not substantiated.
“However, the petition against Nkanu East was sustained by the commission. Before the review, we had 30,350 votes for PDP from Nkanu East LGA. But after the review, PDP’s votes now reduced to 16,956.
“For LP, the votes they had on Monday was 1855 and after the review, it increased to 1864”.
However, the LP’s collation agent, Eugene Edeoga, objected to the continuation, saying that it was against the provisions of the Electoral Act to still release results from a particular unit after it had been discovered to have been over-voting.
His objections were overruled by Prof Iwe, who claimed that he was under authority “to do what I’m doing here this evening.”
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