“…Uzodinma having satisfied all the requirements of law and scored majority of the lawful votes, is hereby declared elected.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on Sunday declared Governor Hope Uzodinma, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of Saturday’s governorship election in Imo State.
The Returning Officer, Abayomi Sunday, vice chancellor of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti, Ekiti State, announced the winner Sunday morning at the state collation centre in Owerri, Imo State capital.
According to the returning officer, the APC candidate scored 540,308 votes to defeat his closest challenger Samuel Anyanwu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 71,503 votes while the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Athan Achonu, came third with 64,081 votes. None of the other 15 candidates had up to 10,000 votes.
Making the declaration, Sunday announced that, “Hope Odidika Uzodinma having satisfied all the requirements of law and scored majority of the lawful votes, is hereby declared elected.”
However, both the PDP and LP candidates had alleged fraud and demanded the cancellation of the election.
INEC records showed that, the number of registered voters in the state for the poll was 2,419,922 with 2,318,919 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) collected. The voter turnout was less than 40 per cent.
Sunday’s announcement means Uzodinmma will spend another four more years as Imo governor following his victory.
