Okorocha re-elected, Ikpeazu, Ishaku emerge as Abia, Taraba govs-elect

IMO State Governor Rochas Okorocha has won the re-run governorship election just as Darius Dickson Ishaku and Dr. Okezie Victor Ikpeazu emerged victorious in Taraba and Abia respectively.

Okorocha ran under the All Progressives Congress (APC) while Ishaku and Okezie contested on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Okorocha defeated his closest rival , Chief Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP with a total of 416,996 votes, while the latter polled 320,705.

The Returning Officer and Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Ikwo, Ebonyi State, Prof. Ibidapo Obe, said a total of 1,902,614 voters registered in the state, adding that 847,996 were duly accredited.

Announcing the results in Jalingo, the Returning Officer, Professor Mohammed Kyari, stated that APC had a total of 13,598 votes while PDP polled 52,120.

Kyari further stated that APC had 275,984 total number of votes while the PDP polled 369,318 votes to emerge winner.

The result, which was declared amidst tight security, was accepted by all the political parties except the APC, which refused to sign the final results sheets, publicly made available to all the parties by Kyari.

Despite the fact that Ikpeazu has been declared winner of the governorship polls ,

National Chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Chief Victor Umeh has tasked the President -elect Muhammadu Buhari to probe how the 2015 elections were conducted in the South East  alleging that the zone was not allowed to elect leaders of their choice .

Addressing a press conference in Umuahia on Sunday , Umeh wondered why the results of the elections on April 11 in three local councils of Osisioma, Isiala Ngwa South and Obingwa that were cancelled by the Returning Officer Prof Benjamin Ozumba were later reversed asserting that according to the Electoral Act, once results are cancelled, only an Election Tribunal has power to reverse the cancellation.

Umeh who spoke in the presence of the Abia APGA governorship candidate Dr Alex Otti,, said APGA has rejected the outcome of the guber election in which the PDP candidate Dr Okezie Ikpeazu was early Sunday morning declared as duly elected.

His words “ We will not leave any stone unturned to ensure that the mandate given us by the Abia electorate and stolen is recovered.

“The weekend re-run and supplementary polls in Abia were improperly conducted”.

He also queried the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for not holding re-run or supplementary polls in all the nine councils   on  Saturday 25 April  as earlier publicized only to cancel it on  Friday , a day to the election .