The Independent National Electoral Commission in Akwa Ibom State has declared the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate, Pst. Umo Eno, as the winner of the 2023 governorship election held on Saturday, March 18.
Declaring the results at the INEC headquarters in Uyo on Sunday, the State Returning Officer and Vice Chancellor of Maritime University, Okerenkoko, Delta State, Prof Emmanuel Adigio, said the PDP candidate polled a total of 356,346 votes to defeat his opponents of the Young Progressive Party and All Progressives Congress who scored a total of 136,262 and 129,602 respectively.
The New Nigeria Peoples Party followed with 125,09 votes while the Labour party polled 4,746 votes and others trail in that order.
He said, “That the Pst Umo Eno of the PDP having satisfied the requirements of the law is here declared winner of the governorship election in Akwa Ibom State.”
Our correspondent reports that the PDP candidate won in 29 out of 31 local government areas of the state while his opponent in the YPP, Senator Bassey Akpan, won in only two LGAs.
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The local government areas won by the PDP candidate include Udung Uko, Uruan, Ini, Esit Eket, Ikot Abasi, Ikot Ekpene, Etim Ekpo and 22 others while his YPP opponent won in Ikono and Ibiono Ibom LGAs respectively.
However, the YPP party agent, Mr kelvin Umoh rejected the results, alleging widespread violence, and intimidation that led to the killing of his party supporters
Umoh said, “It will be wrong for me to append my signature to the results sheets because there was widespread violence and intimidation”
The PDP agent, Engr. Uwem Okoko, while commending the INEC for the improvement witnessed in the Saturday polls, also thanked Akwa Ibom People for voting for PDP in the state.
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Assembly Election 2023: Anambra Twitter user arrested, taken to Abuja
The Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, said he had no specific information about any specific allegations or basis for the arrest of a Twitter user in Anambra, Nnamdi Chude.
Details of the alleged arrest of the Twitter user have been sketchy since he raised the alarm of ballot boxes snatching through his Twitter handle.
But Soludo, who reacted to the arrest through his Press Secretary, Christian Aburime, in a statement on Sunday, confirmed that Chude was arrested on Saturday in Anambra by the Cyber Crime Unit of the Interpol and taken to Abuja on Sunday.
Chude had through his Twitter handle, raised the alarm that thugs suspected to be working for the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance in the state invaded some polling units in the state and allegedly snatched ballot boxes.
The tweep, who expressed disappointment over the incident, said the thugs disrupted the voting process in order to prevent their party from losing the state assembly election to another rival party.
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In the tweet, Chude said, “I can’t remember the last time I heard of ballot box snatching in Anambra, this is the height of it, @CCSoludo has taken us back to Mbadinuju’s era.”
The Twitter user was subsequently picked up by security operatives from Onitsha and transported to Awka’s State Criminal Investigation Department, where he was allegedly detained on cybercrime charge.
But reacting to the development in the statement, Aburime insisted that the state government had no specific information concerning the tweep’s arrest.
The two-paragraph statement with the caption, “Re: Arrest of one Mr Chude by the police,” explained, “The Commissioner of Police, Anambra State Police Command has confirmed to the Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, that one Mr Nnamdi Chude was arrested yesterday (18/03/23) in Anambra, by the Cyber Crime Unit of Interpol and taken to Abuja, today (19/03/23).
“Anambra State Government has no information about any specific allegations or basis of his arrest,” Aburime said.