BREAKING: INEC Declares Hope Uzodinma Winner Of Imo Governorship Election With 540,308 Votes

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has confirmed Governor Hope Uzodimma of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the November 11, 2023 gubernatorial election in the state.

VerseNews reports that Prof Abayomi Fashina, the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti, who served as the state’s Returning Officer, announced Uzodimma’s re-election Sunday morning after eight hours of tallying local government results at around 10 am.

“That you Hope Uzodimma of APC having satisfied the law is hereby returned elected,” Fashina declared.

In January 2020, Uzodimma was declared Imo State’s governor by the Supreme Court, a move that nullified the election of Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP. This decision caused Uzodimma to garner more political enemies in the state, which is currently experiencing the security problem of ‘unknown gunmen’, kidnappings, and ongoing Monday sit-at-home protests from pro-secessionist sects.

In Saturday’s poll, Uzodimma, age 64, running for re-election, was victorious in all of the 27 local government areas of the state, defeating PDP’s Samuel Anyanwu, Labour Party (LP)’s Nneji Achonu, Jack Ogunewe from Action Alliance (AA), and 14 other opponents.

APC’s candidate managed to win the election by receiving 540,308 votes, with PDP’s Anyanwu following up with 71,503 votes and LP’s Achonu having the least 64,081.

From 2:30am to 8:30am on Sunday, the eight-hour marathon collation of results at the state collation centre was full of drama and opposition party agents protesting, arguing that the results presented there were different from those displayed on the Result Viewing Portal of the commission.

Agents of the Labour Party, as well as numerous others, made ardent appeals for the postponement of the tallying of votes, yet the electoral officer was adamant that the counts should be finished.

According to the Independent National Electoral Commission, the number of registered voters for the poll in the South-East state was 2,419,922, with 2,318,919 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) collected.

Reports had it that the governorship poll was tainted in various ways, such as vote-buying, voter intimidation, violence and other electoral malpractices. Consequently, anti-graft agencies apprehended some party agents with bundles of cash.

Governorship elections took place in Kogi and Bayelsa on November 11, 2023. However, the process of collecting and tabulating the results in the two states has been postponed until Sunday morning.

Similar to Imo, the outcome of the elections in Kogi and Bayelsa has yet to be determined.