In the closest contest in the governorship elections in the 2023 General election, Barr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been declared the winner of the March 18 governorship election in Enugu State.
He narrowly defeated Hon. Chijioke Edeoga of the Labour Party (LP) who came aecond in the contest.
Mbah was around 9:50pm Wednesday night, March 22, declared winner of last Saturday’s election in the state by the by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He scored a total of 160,895 votes, beating his main challenger, Edeoga, who scored a total of 157,552 votes.
The collation of the results had been suspended on Monday by INEC following controversy arising from the alleged padding of figures from Nkanu Local Government Area.
The contest, like what obtained in Abia State, where Labour Party’s Alex Oti was declared winner, almost got awry with the INEC recalling the results of the election from Nsukka and Nkanu-East Local Government Areas to Abuja for review before the Collation Officers were allowed to go back to Enugu and finish the collation and announce the winner.
State Returning Officer, Prof Maduebibisi Iwe said Wednesday evening that Enug East votes were reduced from 30,350 votes to 16,956.
He also said that Frank Nweke Jr. of APGA came third with 17,983 votes.
Supporters of the LP.and PDP had since two days ago kept vigil at the INEC Enugu office, with none backing off, claiming its candidate won the election.
