INEC declares Labour Party’s Alex Otti winner of Abia governorship poll

The candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Alex Otti, has been announced as the winner of the governorship poll in Abia state by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

This follows the conclusion of the collation of the outstanding results from Obingwa LGA.

In total, Otti polled 175,467 to defeat Okey Ahiwe, his closest rival and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 88,529 votes.

On Monday, the electoral body suspended the collation of results in Abia after thugs invaded its office in Obingwa LGA.

The assailants held the INEC officials hostage before they were released, prompting the electoral commission to call for a review of the process.

At the time collation was halted, Otti was reportedly in the lead after garnering over 80,000 votes.

The victory is the first for the LP in the March 18 governorship election across the federation.

The party had won in all the five south-east states — Abia, Enugu, Anambra, Imo, and Ebonyi — in the presidential election.