The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Mrs Uche Ekwunife of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of the Anambra Central senatorial poll conducted on Saturday.
Declaring the result on Monday in Awka, the Returning Officer, Dr Pius Okoye, said that Ekwunife polled 101,548 votes to defeat 14 other candidates.
Okoye, a lecturer at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, said that Chief Victor Umeh of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) garnered 77, 129 votes to come second while Sen. Chris Ngige of All Progressives Congress (APC) placed third with 20, 850 votes.
Chief Anayo Nweke of African Democratic Congress (ADC) came fourth with 227 votes.
The lecturer commended the candidates for their peaceful disposition during the collation of results.
Reacting to the results, Ekwunife, who currently represents Anaocha, Njikoka and Dunukofia Federal Constituency, described the outcome as “victory for the masses’’.
In a statement signed by her media assistant, Mr Emmanuel Uzor, Ekwunife urged her opponents to sheathe their swords and accept her victory in good faith.
She commended the people of Anambra Central Senatorial zone for electing her and assured them that she would consolidate the confidence reposed in electing her to the Red Chambers.
Earlier, the APC candidate, Sen. Chris Ngige, had expressed dissatisfaction with the conduct of the Presidential and National Assembly elections and called for its cancellation in the state.
Ngige, who refused to cast his vote on Saturday, noted that “the entire electoral process in the state was given an open ended system that allowed for rigging’’.
On his part, the APGA candidate, Chief Victor Umeh, said that the party would react in due course, adding that it was still studying the result announced by INEC.
“We have no reaction yet because we are still studying the result,” Umeh said through his media aide, Mr Stanley Okeke.
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