PDP’s Ortom wins re-election in Benue, as Bala Mohammed wins supplementary election in Bauchi
Governor Samuel Ortom of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has won the keenly contested Benue Governorship election held on March 23.
Ortom polled 434,473 votes to defeat his closest rival, Mr Emmanuel Jime of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who polled 345,155 votes.
The INEC Returning Officer for the election, Prof. Sabastine Maimako, declared the result on Sunday in Makurdi.
He said that Ortom “having polled the highest number of votes at this election is hereby declared winner”.
Maimako said the total registered votes were 2,471,894, total accredited voters were 858,947 while total valid votes stood at 830,954.
He sad total rejected votes were 15,268 while the margin of lead between the winner and his closest rival was 89,318 votes.
PDP’s Mohammed wins Bauchi governorship supplementary election
In the meantime, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has declared the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Bala Mohammed, as winner of the supplementary election in Bauchi State.
Returning Officer Professor Kyari Mohammed announcement on Sunday, that the PDP candidate polled a total of 6,376 while the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Muhammed Abubakar, who is the incumbent governor polled 5,117 votes in the supplementary election held on Saturday.
The Returning Officer, however, noted that he is in no position to make a return because the case involving the Tafawa Balewa LGA is still in court.
The Federal High Court in Abuja had on March 19 stopped the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from proceeding with the collation, conclusion and announcement of the result of the governorship election in the state held on March 9, 2019.
Justice Inyang Ekwo issued the order based on an ex parte application filed by the APC and the governor, Mohammed Abubakar.
Governor Abubakar had filed the application in court after he criticised the electoral body for its decision to continue with the collation of results after it had earlier declared the exercise in the state inconclusive.
INEC had declared the exercise inconclusive after the margin between the two leading candidates was said to be less than the number of cancelled votes.
According to the Returning Officer, Kyari Mohammed, results collated showed that the candidate of the PDP, polled 469,512 votes, while the candidate of the APC secured 465,453 votes.
The Commission, however, later insisted that it would resume the collation of results of Tafawa Balewa LGA on March 19 after considering a report submitted by the REC.
Read Also: INEC Challenges Court Order Stopping Collation Of Bauchi Governorship Election Result
It also challenged the powers of the court to stop the collation and announcement of results.
According to its legal officer, Hassan Adamu, the court has no jurisdiction to interfere in post-election litigation.
Filing a counter affidavit, he argued that any post-election matter is exclusively reserved for the Election Petitions tribunal and not for any regular court.
The Commission, however, later agreed to hold the supplementary elections on March 23 in all other LGAs except Tafawa Balewa.
