The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared PDP’s Candidate, Mr. Siminalayi Fubara, winner of the March 18 governorship election in Rivers State.

Fubara is the choice of Governor Nyesom Wike while Tonye Cole of the APC was promoted by former Minister of Transportation and ex-governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi.

The governorship election was another opportunity for allies turned foes to test their relevance and acceptability in the politics of the oil-rich state.

At the end of the election, Wike triumphed over Amaechi, though the gladiators were not on the ballot. It was a repeat of the 2015 and 2019 battles.

Prof. Akpofure Rim-Rukeh, the State Returning Officer for INEC who declared the results on Monday at the INEC headquarter in Rivers, said that PDP scored 302,614 votes in the election.

Rim-Rukeh, who is also the Vice Chancellor, Federal University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE), Effurun, said that Mr. Tonye Cole, the governorship candidate of the APC, polled 95,274 votes to come second, while the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Senator Magnus Abe, scored 46,981 votes and placed third.

He added that the governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mrs Beatrice Itubor, scored 22,224 votes to come fourth, Accord Party (A) scored 7,155; Action Alliance (AA),1,693; All Alliance Congress (AAC) 386; Action Democratic Party (ADP), 925; and Action Peoples Party (APP), 973 voted.

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He also said that ADC scored 940 votes; ADP 925; APGA, 489; APM, 568; APP, 973; BP, 137; NNPP, 335; NRM, 2,258; YPP, 664; and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), 338.

According to Rim-Rukeh, “Siminalayi Fubara of PDP, having scored the highest votes and had the 25 per cent spread with satisfactory margin of lead, and having satisfied the requirements of the law, is hereby declared winner.”

Rim-Rukeh gave the state’s total number of registered voters as 3,537,190 and the number of accredited voters as 496,852

He said that the total votes cast were 494,604; total valid votes, 483,934 while the total number of rejected votes was10,670 in the election.

The breakdown of the results on local government areas, as announced by the local government Collation Officers, showed that the PDP candidate won in all the 23 Local Government Areas of the state.

The Star