The Labour Party’s Governorship candidate, Dr. Alex Otti has defeated the People Democratic Party’s Okechukwu Ahaiwe in the just concluded Abia State governorship election.
The INEC State Returning Officer for Abia, Nnenna Oti made the declaration on Wednesday at the State INEC headquarters in Umuahia.
Otti won the Abia election with 175,460 votes, while his closest rival Ahaiwe got 88,529 votes in the March 18th governorship election in the state.
The former banker won 10 out of 17 Local Governments in the State, while the PDP candidate won six. The Young Progressives Party (YPP) also won one LGA.
Declaring the result, the State Returning Officer said Otti has met the required conditions provided by the law to be returned as governor-elect of Abia State.
Otti’s victory came despite the attacks on INEC collation office at Obingwa by some alleged PDP thugs, a move aimed at forcing INEC staff to alter results.
INEC’s National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education Festus Okoye, had said, “Earlier today (Sunday), the Commission alerted the nation to the invasion of our Obingwa Local Government Area office in Abia State by thugs during the collation of results for the Governorship and State Assembly elections.
“In contention was the collated result from the Registration Areas for the Governorship election in that Local Government Area. The intention was to force the collation of these contentious results. The behaviour of these thugs is unacceptable and there will be a thorough review of the results.
“The Commission does not take the patience of citizens for granted and will continue to take steps to protect the integrity of the vote and consolidate the progress made so far in the electoral process.”
Abia gubernatorial election results were however declared inconclusive pending a forensic audit of the controversial Obingwa result.
Obingwa recorded 27,661 accredited voters on March 18, 2023 gubernatorial and State House elections.
But the results presented from the local government was over 100,000 votes in favour of the PDP candidate Ahaiwe.
According to the State Returning Officer, INEC position on the Obingwa case was for the electoral guideline to be followed.
The State INEC administrative secretary said the commission has no interest in the election but would rather ‘give Abians the leader they want’.
Presenting the results for Obingwa after the audit, the Obingwa returning officer said LGA has 27,661 accredited voters.
PDP scored 9,962 votes, while the LP 3,776 votes. The total valid votes where 20,000.
Otti’s victory is a major upset for the PDP that has controlled the state for almost 24 years.
The PDP won the 1999 elections with former governor, Orji Uzo Kalu as candidate.
Kalu dumped the party to contest for his second term under Progressive Peoples Alliance in 2003.
Theodore Orji also won in 2007 under the PPA but in 2010 he left the party to the All Progressives Grand Alliance and later the PDP where he contested the 2011 election
