BREAKING: LP clinches 1st state in 2023 as Otti becomes Abia governor
Otti has become the first Labour Party governorship candidate to emerge winner in the 2023 general elections.
Recommended articles
Otti waded off stiff competition from his closest challengers, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Okey Ahiwe and Enyinnaya Nwafor of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) who finished second and third respectively.
It'd be recalled that INEC had on Monday, March 20, 2023, suspended the collation of results for the Abia State governorship election over the controversy on the results from Obingwa Local Government Area.
At the resumption of the final collation of results on Wednesday, the state Returning Officer, Prof, Nnenna Nnannaya-Oti, announced the Labour Party candidate as the winner after polling a total of 175,467 votes while Ahiwe could only manage 88,529 votes and Nwafor recorded 28,972 votes.
Shortly before making the declaration, the Returning Officer who is also the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, pledged to do the right of the people and protect democratic values.
“I shall stand squarely and unapologetically on these principles. The people’s votes and mandate shall stand.
"The pastor and the mother in me will not permit me to do anything that will adversely affect the future of our children,” Nnannaya-Oti said.
Pulse reports that Otti's victory means the Labour Party has now won a governorship seat in the 2023 general elections.
This is the second time ever the party will be producing a governor after the election of Olusegun Mimiko as the governor of Ondo State in 2007.
JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!
Eyewitness? Submit your stories now via social or:
Email: eyewitness@pulse.ng