PDP wins Kogi East senatorial seat, Imo inconclusive

Former Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshall Isaac Alfa, has won the Kogi East Senatorial re-run election held on Saturday. The election was adjudged to be generally peaceful
Alfa who contested the elec­tion on the platform of the Peo­ples Democratic Party (PDP) pulled 57, 575 votes to beat oth­er five candidates.
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) did not par­ticipate in the poll as a result of an Appeal Court judgment which banned it from fielding any candidate.
In Imo State, the hope of the people in the Imo North Sen­atorial District to have quali­ty representation in the Senate was dashed on Sunday follow­ing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC’s) declaration that the election was inconclusive.




INEC Returning Officer, Arinze Agbogu said that the de­cision was taken upon the dis­covery that the number of reg­istered voters in places where elections are yet to hold are higher than what the leading candidate scored against his closest opponent.
In the Kogi East poll, Prof. Lucky Ovwhasa, who was the returning officer, said that Alfa was declared winner having polled the highest number of votes.
He said that the candidates of ACPN scored 1,793, KOWA, 888, MPPP 498, UPP, 349 and the Labour (LP) 11,908 votes.
The election was held in eight of the nine local govern­ment area in the district. They are Bassa, Dekina, Ankpa, Ola­maboro, Ofu, Idah, Igalamela/Odolu and Ibaji.
The election was held in 236 of the 1,080 polling units in the senatorial district while only 140, 297 of the 643,559 regis­tered voters in the area partic­ipated in the election. A total of 1, 390 personnel conducted the election.


The Returning Officer of the Idah State Constituency re-run election, Prof. Femi Ajayi, had late Saturday evening an­nounced Hon. Haruna Idoko of the APC as the winner of the election.
Idoko polled 8,346 votes to beat his closest rival, Hon. James Ukwubile of the PDP who scored 8,274 votes.
As at the time of filing this report, the result of Ofu State Constituency was still being collated.
In the Imo North con­test, the PDP candidate, Sena­tor Athan Achonu, got 40,142 votes, Chief Benjamin Uwaju­mogu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) scored 48,921 votes, thereby leading with his closest opponent with a margin of 8,777 votes
INEC said that there will be a supplementary election in 15 polling units with a total num­ber of 13,000 registered voters on date a yet to be fixed date.


The results officially an­nounced by INEC at its Zon­al Headquarters in Okigwe Lo­cal Government Area showed that PDP won in Onuimo and Ehime Mbano councils while APC clinched Ihitte Uboma, Okigwe, and Obowo councils.
PDP kicks, demands declara­tion of original result
Meanwhile, the state chap­ter of the PDP has rejected the results declared by INEC, say­ing it was doctored.
Achonu said that “what happened yesterday (Saturday) is a shame. The APC in conniv­ance with some INEC officials cooked up results. They beat up PDP collation officers and chased them out. By the time they (INEC) announced the re­sults, they had cooked up fun­ny figures.”
He alongside former Speak­er of the House of Represent­atives, Chief Emeka Ihedioha; Senator Sam Anyanwu rep­resenting Imo West (Owerri zone); Hon. Jonas Onyeriri rep­resenting Nkwerre, Nwangele and Njaba federal constituency, Acting PDP Caretaker Chair­man, Chief Martin Ejiogu de­manded for the reversal to the original results declared booth-by-booth, at the ward level, lo­cal government areas, which re­flected the wishes of the people.
Ihedioha said that “our par­ty has been law abiding but we don’t want anybody to take our calmness for granted. We won the election clearly. We demand that the INEC National Chair­man do the needful”.


Also yesterday, the Act­ing Inspector-General of Po­lice (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, ap­plauded the men and officers of the Nigeria Police for what he described as their “patriot­ism, professionalism and com­mitment during the Kogi and Imo rerun elections.”
He, however, revealed that his management team had de­veloped workable strategy and a template that will guarantee free, fair and credible election devoid of violence in the future.
In a statement by the Force Spokesman, Don Awunah, a Deputy Commissioner of Po­lice (DCP), the IGP noted that the successes recorded in the elections were a testimony that the police are well prepared to supervise all elections in the years ahead.
Idris therefore commended the police operatives who par­ticipated in the rerun elections “for their personal and collec­tive demonstration of patriot­ism, professionalism and com­mitment in ensuring that the re-run elections were conduct­ed in an atmosphere of peace devoid of any breach of public security.