PDP’s Ikpeazu beats Otti to Abia governorship

Okezie Ikpeazu, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has been declared the winner of the Abia state governorship election.

Ikpeazu polled 264,713 to defeat Alex Otti, the candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), who polled 180,882 votes.

On April 12, Benjamin Ozumba, the returning officer for Abia, had announced that there were irregularities in nine local government areas (LGAs) and subsequently declared the election inconclusive.

Back then, Ikpeazu had polled about 248, 459 votes while Otti, had 406 votes, making a difference of 83,053 votes, while 177,000 votes were cancelled – which was more than the vote difference between the top candidate and his leading challenger.

This had necessitated Saturday’s supplementary election in Aba north, Aba south, Ikwuano, Ohiafia, Osisioma, Ugwunagbo, Umuahia north, Umuahia south and Umunneochi.

However, there was low turnout of voters in the areas where the rescheduled election held.