Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia as winner of the Benue State governorship election.
INEC said the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Alia scored the highest votes to beat his closest challenger, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) Engr. Titus Uba, who is the current speaker of Benue assembly.
Returning Officer for Governorship Election in Benue, Prof. Adamu Farouk Kuta, who is Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Technology, Minna, announced that Alia polled a total of 473,933 to lead Uba who had 223,913 while Labour Party’s Heman Hembe trailed with 41,881 votes. Alia led with a 251,020 votes margin.
From the 23 LGAs of the state, APC’s Alia secured majority of the votes in 17 LGAs. Uba however won in four LGAs while the LP won one local government area.
The results from 22 out of the 23 LGAs in the state were announced, leaving out Kwande LGA where elections did not hold as a result of printing error discovered on the ballot sheets.
Kuta, the state returning officer explained that the setback could not affect the declaration of the entire results of the election as the margin of the winning party far exceeded the registered voters in Kwande LGA.
“We are relying on Electoral act, Section 24 sub 1 and Electoral guideline of INEC,” Kuta said as he declared Alia of the APC winner at exactly 5:47pm on Monday.
From a total of 756,903 valid votes, APC secured 473,933, PDP: 223,913, LP: 41,881, and NNPP:1,187. The amount of rejected votes amounted to 11,499.
