PDP wins house of reps election in Benue

The Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared John Tiav, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as the winner of the re-contested Buruku federal constituency seat in Benue.

Tiav polled 25,988 votes ahead of John Tine of Labour Party, who had 3,602 and Sekav Iyortyom of the All Progressive Congress scored, who polled 395 votes.

Baba Abba-Yusuf, the INEC resident commissioner in the state who also served as the returning officer, declared Tiav as the winner, saying he met all requirements of the electoral act.

He said only 30,378 turned out for the exercise out of the 101,198 eligible voters that registered for the election.

Yusuf commended the candidates and their supporters for their peaceful conduct throughout the period of the election.

The APC candidate withdrew from the contest a day to the election.

The Supreme Court had overturned the outcome of the first election conducted in 2011 and ordered for a fresh conduct, while excluding its previous winner, Mr Orker Jev of the APC.

Sekav Iyortyom, then an aspirant of APC, had challenged the outcome of the party’s primaries on the grounds that it was not won by Jev, who was declared winner.

He alleged that his name was fraudulently replaced with that of Jev, who later went to the house of representatives to represent the constituency.

The court granted the prayers of Sekav and ordered for a fresh election.