Abia State Governorship election returning officer and Vice-Chancellor of
the University of Nigeria Nsukka Professor Benjamin Ozumba this evening
declared Dr Okezie Ikpeazu of the People’s Democratic Party as the winner
of Saturday’s election.
He announced that Ikpeazu scored 261,127 votes to beat his APC opponents
Dr Uche Ogah who scored 99,574 and APGA Dr Alex Otti 64,366 to second and
third positions respectively.
According to him, while Ikpeazu won in 11 LGAs, Ogah won in four and Otti
in two.
Ogah and Otti immediately addressed a joint press conference rejecting the
outcome of the election.
They accused INEC of disregarding the card readers rule.
They said that the results released by INEC were highly tweaked to favour
the PDP adding “even where some of us in the opposition had warned, INEC
connived with security Agencies to change the results in favour of the
PDP”
According to the duo, they were surprised that INEC re-appointed Prof
Ozumba who so acted in 2015 as the Returning Officer despite according ,
to them , that he ( Ozumba ) as the 2015 Returning Officer in the state
“created the problems we had in 2015 when he reversed himself by accepting
results he had earlier cancelled when he came under pressure and influence
of PDP both in the state and at the Federal level.”
Elated by his victory, Ikpeazu extended his hands of fellowships to his
opponents that lost in the contest and commended INEC for conducting a
peaceful and credible election in the state.
He said that his victory will spur him to fulfil his electioneering
pledges and actualize the projects he already set into motion.