The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has officially announced Governor Hope Uzodimma of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the victorious candidate in the Imo State governorship election held on November 11, 2023.
Declared by Prof Abayomi Fashina, the Returning Officer and Vice Chancellor of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti, the re-election of Uzodimma was confirmed at 10 am on Sunday after an extensive eight-hour process of collating local government results.
Uzodimma, who initially assumed office in January 2020 following a Supreme Court ruling, secured a triumphant victory by winning in all 27 local government areas of the state. The APC candidate amassed a total of 540,308 votes, surpassing his closest rivals, PDP’s Samuel Anyanwu with 71,503 votes and LP’s Nneji Achonu with 64,081 votes, according to INEC’s result.
Despite allegations of discrepancies raised by opposition party agents during the lengthy collation period, the returning officer remained firm in completing the process.
The election day as observed was marred by incidents of vote buying, voter intimidation, violence, and other electoral malpractices, leading to the arrest of party agents with hidden cash and beating up of a Labour Party agent at the collation centre.
The off season gubernatorial elections was conducted in Imo, Kogi# and Bayelsa.
The collation of results for the governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa is ongoing.