BY EBERE EKECHI
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has declared the All Progressive Congress, APC, as winner of Okigwe Senatorial Election held on December 5
Strangely, the electoral Commission, did not return a candidate for the party as winner.
Announcing the results of the election, the Election Returning Officer, Hakeem Adikum, said “I hereby return the All Progressive Congress as the winner of the bye election held in Imo North on Saturday, December 5.
According to him, APC won in five out of six local governments in the senatorial district namely Okigwe,Onuimo, Isiala Mbano, Ehime Mbano, and Ihitte Uboma LGAs, while the PDP won in one local government area, Obowo.
INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof Francis Ezeonu, said INEC was unable to return a candidate from the APC as winner because of several Court orders for and against Ibezim and Araraume.
Prior to the election, the APC has been engulfed in crisis over who is the authentic candidate of the party for the polls.
Two court judgements had surfaced on Friday, one from the Appeal Court, Owerri, and another from Federal High Court, Abuja.
The Court of Appeal, Owerri, sacked Senator Ifeanyi Araraume as candidate of the party, faulting the judgement of the Federal High Court, Owerri, which nullified the candidacy of Mr.Frank Ibezim.
The Federal High Court, Abuja, in it’s ruling declared Senator Araraume as candidate of the party, on the grounds Frank Ibezim presented fake certificates to the APC and INEC.
The two court judgements may have forced INEC not to declare any of the “candidates” in the APC, as winner of the election.
Meanwhile official results announced by INEC for the election shows that the APC polled a total of 36, 811 votes, while the PDP got 31,903 votes.
Below are results of the election from the six local governments.
Ehime Mbano.
APC 7229
PDP 5727
Isiala Mbano
APC 6,148
PDP 3755
Ihitte Uboma
APC 6809.
PDP 5504
Onuimo
APC 5540.
PDP 4475
Obowo
APC 3,859.
PDP 6,515
Okigwe
APC 7,185.
PDP 5,220