PDP sweeps LG polls in Ebonyi

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has won the 13 local government chairmanship seats in Ebonyi state.

The council polls held in the state on Saturday.

According to NAN, the party also won all the councillorship seats in the 171 wards of the state.

Jossy Eze, chairman of the Ebonyi state independent electoral commission (EBSIEC), while declaring the results on Sunday, said seven political parties out of the 40 registered parties participated in the elections.

“The other parties that contested in the elections include: African Democratic Party (ADC), African Peoples Party (APA) Merger Progressive Peoples Party (MPPP) Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the United Democratic Party (UDP),” he said.

“The PDP’s candidate in Abakaliki LGA, Emmanuel Nwangele won with 65, 036 votes, Ogbonnaya Oko-Enyim won in Afikpo LGA with 55, 808, Eni Uduma-Chima-Afikpo South 50, 894, Juliet Nwaogbaga—Ebonyi, 54, 527 and Nora Aloh—Ezza North, 58, 423 votes.

“The PDP candidate in Ezza South LGA, Sunday Ogodo won with 50, 576 votes, John Nnabo—Ikwo, 77, 132, Henry Eze—Ishiellu, 68, 263, Ude Ogbonnaya—Ivo, 28, 787 Paul Nwogha—Izzi, 84, 088, Clement Odaa—Ohaukwu,84, 088, Nkechi Iyioku—Ohaozara, 55, 698 and Felix Igboke—Onicha,59, 698 votes.

“We have been able to deliver a credible election to Ebonyi people despite inherent challenges as the state has the enviable record of conducting LGA elections in the country, every three years.”

Splendour Eze, state chairman of the Advanced Congress for Democrats (ACD), said the current economic hardship in the country made most parties not to participate in the election.

“The state governor was magnanimous to offset 50 per cent of the nomination fees of N500, 000 for chairmanship candidates and N100, 000 for councillorship positions, for registered parties in the state,” the chairman said.

“The balance despite the subsidy was still high as it was still not within the reach of most parties.”

On her part, Isabella Monye, an election observer from Anambra, said the figures released by EBSIEC did not reflect what observers witnessed in various polling units.

“During our monitoring on Saturday we observed that the turnout for the election was poor so I wonder where EBSIEC got these high figures from,” Monye said.