Announcement of results of Saturday’s governorship election in Abia State has become stalemated for the second time. Late last night, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) stalled further announcement of results following the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reverse itself on the result from Obingwa Local Government Area. INEC had yesterday afternoon announced the cancellation of the result based on established cases of violence and rigging but reversed itself after a visit by Governor Theodore Ahamefula Orji.

APGA agent, Ahamdi Nweke, late last night disrupted every attempt to continue with the exercise, vowing that the only way the collation could continue was if he was thrown out of the collation centre. Nweke vowed that he would not allow INEC to reverse itself having earlier announced that result from Obingwa had been voided. This forced an abrupt end of proceedings. It is yet unclear whether the exercise will continue today and at what time.

As at the time everybody dispersed, APGA’s Alex Otti had toppled Okezie Ikpeazu of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the vote count.

Announcement of results had first been suspended late in the evening following a dispute over returns from Ikpeazu’s Ngwa stronghold. As at that time, each of the two strong contenders had won six the 12 collated local government areas but with Ikpeazu garnering 127,456 votes as against 105,795 by Otti.

However, when the vote count resumed with the collation of the result from Aba South, Otti erased the deficit, winning with an astronomical 28,000 votes as against a mere 4,000 by Ikpeazu to put him ahead with a total 134,000 votes as against 132,000 for Ikpeazu.

Results from Obingwa, Isiala Ngwa North, Ohafia and Ikwuano local governments are still pending.

•Photo shows Alex Otti.

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