By BASHIR ADEFAKA
Pastor Umo Bassey Eno, Governorship Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has been declared winner of Akwa Ibom State governorship election held across the South South Nigeria’s state on Saturday March 18, 2023.
Pastor Eno’s victory came as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared him the Governor-elect having polled 354,348 to defeat his closest rivals; Akanimo Udofia of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who scored 129,602 votes and Labour Party (LP)’s Uduak Obong who got 4,746 votes.
He was declared the winner by INEC Returning Officer in the state, Prof Emmanuel Adigio.
Eno, a former Commissioner for Lands in Akwa Ibom, was the anointed candidate of the incumbent Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Chief Udom Emmanuel, whose two terms of eight years will end on May 29, 2023.
Governorship elections were held in 28 of Nigeria’s 36 states on Saturday. The governorship and state assembly elections were held a week later than initially scheduled after a court case forced INEC to move them forward.
The DEFENDER reports that eight of the 36 states; Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Osun, and Ondo have governorship elections “off-season” due to litigation and court judgement, according to investigation.
In alphabetical order, the 28 states where governorship elections were on March 18 are Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara.
Of the 28 states, 11 serving governors sought reelection while 17 outgoing governors are in the final weeks of their constitutional two-term limits of eight years, having been sworn in on May 29, 2015.
