Sim Fubara defeats Tonye Cole with over 200k votes to win Rivers guber poll

Siminialayi Fubara, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has won the Rivers state governorship election.

Akpofure Rim-Rukeh, the returning officer, announced the result on Tuesday at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) head office in Port Harcourt, the Rivers capital.

According to the returning officer, the PDP candidate secured 302,614 votes to win the election.

Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), his closest challenger, polled 95,274 votes.

Magnus Abe, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate, had 46,981 votes while Beatrice Itubo of the Labour Party (LP) got 22,224 votes.

There are 3,537,190 registered voters in the state while a total of 496,852 voters were accredited for the governorship election.

The returning officer said 494,604 votes were cast while 483,934 were valid.

Declaring Fubara the winner, he said: “I, Professor Akpofura Rim-Rukeh, vice-chancellor, Federal University of Petroleum Resources, hereby declare the results of the 2023 governorship election held on the 18th of March, 2023.

“That Fubara Siminialayi of the PDP having scored the highest votes and having the certified percent spread with a satisfactory margin of lead, having satisfied the requirement of the law is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected.”

Following the declaration, party agents from the opposition parties protested the result and demanded a cancellation of the election.

Fubara, the Rivers governor-elect, is the anointed candidate of Nyesom Wike, the outgoing governor of the state.