INEC Bows To Pressure, Declares Otti Winner Of Abia Guber Election

Dr Alex Otti

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) finally bowed to pressure and declared Dr Alex Otti of the Labour Party (LP) as duly elected Governor of Abia State.

BOblog reports that the collation of results for the March 18 Governorship election in the state was suspended due to glitches from Obingwa Local Government Area (LGA) an action that attracted massive protest from Abia people.

But the controversies surrounding the LGA was sorted out before the resumption of collation of result on Wednesday.

INEC Returning Officer, who is the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University, Owerri, Prof. Nnenna Oti, declared the result on Wednesday at the State Collation Centre in Umuahia.

She said that Otti polled 175,467 votes to defeat his closest rival, Chief Okey Ahiwe of the Peoples Democratic Party, who polled 88,529 votes.

Chief Enyinnaya Nwafor of Young Progressives Party had 28, 972 votes, while Chief Ikechi Emenike of All Progressives Congress polled 24,091 votes to place third and fourth positions respectively.

“Alex Otti of LP having satisfied the requirements of the law is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected," she added.

Recall that INEC office in Obingwa LGA was invaded by thugs on Sunday, March 19, 2023 and officials were held hostage in relation to the collation of results from the LGA.

This compelled the electoral body to review the result in Abuja before the continuation of the process as announced by the National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee of INEC, Festus Okoye.

The Collation Officer for Obingwa LGA, Dr Chimaroke Onyeabo, had announced that PDP polled 9,962, while LP scored 3776 votes out of the 27,664 accredited voters.

Meanwhile, there was massive jubilation by the residents of Umuahia, Aba, Arochukwu, Otti’s ancestral community and other parts of the state shortly after he was announced as the winner of the guber poll.

This would be the first time an opposition, Labour party would steer the affairs of the state that had been governed by the PDP since the return of democray in 1999.

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