Uzodimma speaks on re-election bid, says Obi’s victory in Imo won’t affect guber race

Hope Uzodimma, governor of Imo, says the result of the presidential election will not determine the outcome of the November 11 governorship election in the state.

Speaking on Thursday in an interview with Channels Television, Uzodimma said the All Progressives Congress (APC) has performed well in the state.

In the presidential election in Imo, Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) recorded a landslide victory as he polled 352,904 votes.

His closest challenger, Bola Tinubu of the APC, scored 66,171 votes while Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) placed third with 30,004 votes.

The outcome of the presidential poll in Imo has sparked speculations that the governorship election may prove challenging for Uzodimma, who is the APC candidate.

Speaking on the development, the Imo governor said the APC won majority seats in the national and state assemblies.

“First of all, my party did not lose an election in Imo state,” he said.

“If I understand what the situation is — we had an election on February 25 in Imo state.

“We (APC) produced two senators out of three and four members of the house of representatives out of seven concluded seats.

“The next week, which was March, we produced 25 members of the house of assembly out of 27 seats. Is that how to lose an election?

“APC is a party to beat in Imo. APC had done so well that there is already an exodus from other political parties to our great party.

“Presidential election in Nigeria is not calculated or used to assess governorship election.

“In a presidential election, the result is declared according to votes in all states of Nigeria. In the number of votes cast in Nigeria, APC won.

“In the governorship election, the result will be based on votes cast in Imo state and until that is done, nobody is going to beat his chest to tell you what is going to be the result.”