Obiano wins Anambra governorship election

The candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Mr. Willie Obiano, has been declared the winner in the Anambra State governorship election.
Obiano scored 180,178 to beat the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Mr. Tony Nwoye, to the second position with 97,700 votes and Senator Chris Ngige of the All Progressives Congress,  who came third with 95,963. The Labour Party candidate, Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah, came fourth with 37,495.

The formal declaration was made by the Chief Returning Officer, Prof. James Epoke, who is also the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calabar around 1 am on Sunday. The declaration of the winner brought to an end a long-running and controversial process of electing a new governor for Anambra State.
The entire process of electing the new governor was dogged by controversy as three of the major political parties that fielded candidates called for its cancellation and vowed to boycott the supplementary election.

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, who admitted the errors committed in the election, apologised to the nation but said the errors were not substantial enough to warrant the cancellation of the entire exercise.

The supplementary election was eventually held on Saturday but was characterised by low turnout. The Agbaja Polling Unit 22 in Abatete, Idemili North Local Government Area, which has a voting population of 739, for instance, had only 24 candidates accredited and 20 of them voting in the supplementary election.
The main election, which held on November 16, could not be concluded on the same day and INEC announced that election in 65 polling units in Obosi ward in Idemili North Local Government Area would be repeated.

The Chief Returning Officer said the voting population in the areas where election did not take place was large enough to make the second or third person defeat the leading candidate. He, therefore, declared the election inconclusive.

Following the development, INEC declared that supplementary election would in 210 polling units, where 113,113 voters could not vote on November 16. The areas affected cut across 15 local government areas and most of them (160)were in Idemili North. Read more