By Ewa Innocent, The Sight News
ABAKALIKI: Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi state has been declared the winner of the March 9th governorship election conducted last Saturday in the state.
Umahi, who was re-elected under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP),overwhelmingly beat his rival, Senator Sonny Ogbuoji of the All Progressive Congress(APC) to emerge the winner.
Declaring the result at INEC office, Abakaliki, the State Returning Officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission,and Vice Chancellor,Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Prof.Frank Chukwuemeka Eze, announced that Umahi polled a total of 393,043 to beat Senator Sonny Ogbuoji,of the All Progressive Congress(APC) who polled 81,703.
The SIGHT News can report that the 13 local government areas of the state were cleared and won by governor David Umahi of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP).
This is against the backdrop that the PDP, had earlier,during the Presidential and National Assembly elections,cleared all the Senate and House of representatives seats in the state.
It is believed that the intra Party crises that has rocked the All Progressive Congress(APC) in the state, since the conduct of Party primaries, last year up to the time of elections, must have contributed immensely to the poor outing or total failure of the Party to clinch any elective position in the state.
It will be recalled, that a Federal High Court sitting in Abakaliki,on the 6th of March this year,three days to the gubernatorial elections, struck out a case instituted by Prof. Bernard Odo, a candidate of APC primaries, against the gubernatorial candidate of the APC, Senator Sonny Ogbuoji, on what he, Odo, described as the ‘use of inauthentic list’ in the conduct of Party primaries thereby denying him the opportunity of being the APC guber candidate.
Another reason for the unpopular showing during the conduct of the elections,according to some analysts, is the tremendous achievements of governor David Umahi in the state, which accounted for good governance and a great challenge to the opposition.
There is no doubt that the people of Ebonyi state in a pay back has demonstrated their total love and support to governor Umahi during the last elections, by re-electing him for the second time based on his track record, to continue his good works in the state.
