Just in: Ngige rejects Anambra presidential results

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has declared the former Minister of Aviation, Senator Stella Adaeze Oduah of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP winner of the Anambra North Senatorial District.

INEC also declared Mr.  Ifeanyi Ubah, the chairman of Capital Oil and Gas  of the Young Progressives Party, YPP,  and Senator Uche Ekwunife of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,  winners of the Anambra South and Anambra Central Senatorial districts respectively.

Declaring the results   yesterday in Onitsha, the Returning Officer, Prof. Hughes Maduka, said Senator Stella Oduah polled 113,989 votes to defeat 20 other candidates, including Dr. Chinedu Emeka of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, who came second with 59,937 votes while Mr. Nelson Onubogu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, emerged third with 11,995 votes.

Reacting to her victory, Senator Oduah said her re-election for second tenure was “a proof of God’s love for me and my people and I promised to sustain the quality representation.”

 The result of Ifeanyi Ubah’s victory was announced by Mr. M.N. Umenweke, the returning officer at Uruagu Nnewi North Council Headquarters. Umenweke disclosed that Ubah  polled 87,081 votes  to beat his three other rivals, Chris Uba of the PDP (62,462) and his brother, Andy of the APC (13,245) and Nicholas Ukachukwu of APGA (51,269).

 Ubah’s election victory had ended years of domination of the Anambra South Senatorial District by the Uba brothers from Uga in Aguata area of the state. Senator Ugochukwu Uba, the eldest of the Uba brothers held the Anambra South Senatorial seat between 2003 and 2007, while his younger brother and incumbent Senator Andy Uba held the position from 2011 to date.

 Senator Ekwunife who was at the national assembly for APGA between 2010 and 2014 defeated the incumbent Senator Victor Umeh of APGA and Sylvester Okonkwo of the APC.

But the Victor Umeh Campaign Organisation said INEC has not declared Anambra Central Senatorial District result as being claimed as it is still collating the results. Ekwunife had reportedly polled 18,412 votes ahead of Umeh’s 14,403, while Okonkwo trailed them at the rear with  1,144 votes.

PDP also won the House of Representatives seat for Anaocha/Njikoka/Dunukofia Federal Constituency as its candidate Mr. Valentine Ayika scored 16,084. The incumbent, Mr.Ferdinand Dozie Nwankwo of APGA came second with 14,582 and Mr. Elijah Onyeagba of the APC scored 2,574 to come third in the contest.

Ngige rejects Anambra presidential results

In a related development, the minister of labour and employment, Senator Chris Ngige has raised objection to the results, particularly that of Njikoka local government area.

 The minister who is the APC agent for the election said the results announced by the collation officer, Prof Edmund Egbo did not tally with what was collated in the polling units and wards of the local government.

 “With due respect, we cannot accept this result because it does not tally with what was collated in the field. This is a clear case of over voting and my party will not accept it.

 “We know that we are working to beat time especially because of the number of presidential candidates involved, but the right thing would have been to start by announcing the results from the field, before that of the entire local government,”

 Ngige said. But the collation officer insisted that there was no case of over voting but a slight increase in the number of the total votes scored by the candidates.