(POLITICS) Akpabio, Akume Lose Re-election Bids

  Senator George Akume (Benue APC) lost his fourth time bid for the Benue North West Senatorial seat to Hon. Orker Jev. The result was not announced by INEC after a myriad of complaints on the integrity of the election. Akume has been representing the senatorial district since 2007.

   Announcing the results yesterday in Makurdi, INEC returning officer, Prof. Nicodemus Agbulu, said that Jev polled 157,726 votes to beat Akume, who got 115,422 votes. Agbulu said that the number of registered voters was 867,302 while accredited voters were 293,399.

    He said that the total number of valid votes was 278,997, rejected ballots 8,031 and total votes cast, 287,028. The INEC official blamed the delay in the announcement of the result on the inability of the ad-hoc and collation officers to turn in results on time. He disclosed that 63 polling units were cancelled across the 11 wards in Guma, Makurdi and Buruku local government areas.

  Also yesterday, INEC in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State declared Mr. Chris Ekpenyong (PDP) the winner of the Akwa Ibom North West senatorial district election. INEC returning officer, Prof. Peter Ogban, said that Ekpenyong polled 118,215 votes to defeat Senator Godswill Akpabio (APC) who got 83,158 votes. Akpabio was the immediate past governor of Akwa Ibom. Ogban added that the total number of registered voters in the senatorial district were 655,525, accredited votes – 218,493, valid votes – 202,387 votes and voided votes – 7,307.

   INEC also declared Nsikak Ekong the winner of Ikot Ekpene-Obot Akara- Essien Udim federal constituency. The returning officer, Dr. Daniel Udo, said that Ekong of the PDP scored 29,849 to defeat the incumbent Emmanuel Akpan who polled 22,052 votes. The returning officer said total votes cast was 52,237 while the valid votes were 52,036 and 201 were voided.

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