INEC declares LP’s Alex Otti winner of Abia governorship poll

Alex Otti, candidate of the Labour Party (LP), has been declared the winner of the governorship poll in Abia state.

Otti was declared the winner on Wednesday by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after the resumption of the collation of results.

This follows the conclusion of the collation of the outstanding results from Obingwa LGA.

In total, Otti polled 175,467 to defeat Okey Ahiwe, his closest rival and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 88,529 votes.

On Monday, the electoral body suspended the collation of results in Abia after thugs invaded its office in Obingwa LGA.

The assailants held the INEC officials hostage before they were released, prompting the electoral commission to call for a review of the process.

At the time collation was halted, Otti was reportedly in the lead after garnering over 80,000 votes.

The victory is the first for the LP in the March 18 governorship election across the federation.

The party had won in all the five south-east states — Abia, Enugu, Anambra, Imo, and Ebonyi — in the presidential election.

On Tuesday, Otti had called on INEC to declare the results of the election to ease tension in the state.

“I have called on INEC to release the results forthwith so Abia will be at peace. It is our firm belief that INEC will do the right thing and ensure that only results that are based on the BVAS as provided in section 47 of the electoral act are acceptable,” he said while addressing a press conference in Abuja.

“I believe that once that is done, we will be announced as the winners of that election.

“They (INEC) actually asked for a review which is provided for in the electoral act. INEC has about seven days even after the declaration to review and make a change if there is a need to do so.”