Okorocha re-elected for second term

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA, OWERRI

Imo State Governor and candidate of All Progressives Congress, APC, in the just concluded supplementary gubernatorial election, Chief Rochas Okorocha, has been re-elected for a second term in office.

Declaring the results ,Sunday morning, in Owerri, the State Returning Officer, SRO, and Vice Chancellor, Federal University Ndufu Alike, Ikwo, Ebonyi State, Professor Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obe, said that Okorocha polled a total of 416,996 votes to defeat his closest Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, rival and Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Chief Emeka Ihedioha, who scored 320,705 votes.

His words: “I, Professor Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obe, hereby certify that I was the Returning Officer for the Imo governorship election held on the 11th and 25th of April 2015, that election was contested and the candidates received the following votes:

“Ojiri Kenneth Ikechukwu, Accord Party 2,193
Owelle Rochas E. Anayo Okorocha, APC, 416,996
Captain Ihenacho Emmanuel, APGA 28,434
Hon. Chukwuemeka Ihedioha, PDP, 320,705
Hon. Ukanacho Osmond Chima, UPP, 2,974
 
“That Owelle Rochas E. Anayo Okorocha of APC, having satisfied the requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes, is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected”.
 

Continuing, the SRO said that out of the 1.9 million registered voters in the state, only 806,765 votes were recorded, out of which 24,239 were invalid.

Vanguard, who kept vigil at the Imo State Headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Owerri, recalls that the result was announced in the presence of stern looking security personnel, political party agents, media practitioners and election observers.

Meanwhile, scores of APC party faithful in the state have taken over the streets of Owerri, to celebrate what some of them called “the hard won election victory”.

Similarly, the Government House, Owerri, has become a Mecca of sorts, as scores of friends, relations, government appointees and party loyalists continue to stream in and out of the premises.