Wike Wins Rivers Governorship Election

 

Nyesom Wike has been declared by INEC as the winner of the Rivers Governorship Election. 

Wike who ran under the umbrella of the  Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), polled 886,264 votes to beat his closest opponent, Mr. Awara of the AAC who polled

The Returning officer, Professor Teddy Adias of the Niger Delta University Otuoke, Bayelsa state, made the declaration.

In breaking down the details of the poll, Professor Adias noted that the total registered Voters were 3048741.

He further informed that the total accredited votes were 1130445 and the total valid votes were 1102823.  The total votes cast were 1123840.

Professor Adias further noted that the total number of registered voters in places where elections did not hold is 249324.

Wike’s victory comes after very a very tense polling exercise in Rivers State, which recorded cases of violence and electoral anomalies that sought to mar the election.

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The pressure encountered in the course of the governorship race began to build up with the exclusion of the APC from ballot papers, following court injunctions barring INEC from recognising APC candidates for Rivers elections.

On Saturday, March 9, the governorship election in the state finally got underway, however, the process was marred in various locations by violence, with various reports of clashes between alleged thugs and security operatives.

INEC on March 10, suspended the collation of the results of the election in the state, citing electoral violence.

Following the suspension of collations, many calls were made from different quarters, urging INEC to continue the process, with some claiming that halting the exercise was a ploy to rob their various candidates of their mandate.

The electoral umpire went on to announced a schedule of activities for the resumption of the exercise, with collation and announcement of results slated to hold between April 2 and April 5.

With security beefed up in the state,  and after the court dismissed a suit seeking to stop INEC from collating results, the electoral umpire headed back to Rivers to complete the exercise.

On resumption of collations on Tuesday, April 2, results for fifteen local governments were aggregated, after which the INEC postponed the exercise for a conclusion on Wednesday, April 3.

The collation exercise on Wednesday resumed amid protest by some party members and agents.

Officials of the electoral body were able to curtail the pressure and go ahead to announce the results for the remaining local governments where elections held.

Wike took an early lead on Tuesday and eventually won the race. He was declared the winner by the INEC returning officer, Professor Teddy Adias who adjudged that he had satisfied all the requirements and returned him (Wike), duly elected.