INEC declares Fr. Hyacinth Alia as Benue Governor
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Fr. Hyacinth Alia as the Governor-Elect of Benue State after the just concluded Governorship election on March 18.
The APC candidate won his closest rival, Mr. Titus Uba of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who came a distant second, with a margin of 251,020 votes.
While declaring the results, the State Returning Officer, Professor Farouk Kuta, said he was relying on the “provisions of section 24(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 and the Electoral Guideline of INEC to declare the result of the election” since the election in Kwande LGA is still pending.
Furthermore, the returning officer, Prof. Kuta stated that the APC candidate polled a total of 473,933 votes to defeat Mr. Uba of the PDP, who garnered a total of 223,913 votes, while the candidate of the Labour Party (LP) Herman Hembe scored 41,881 votes to come third.
Meanwhile, INEC has scheduled the State Assembly election in the two State Constituencies of Kwande LGA for Tuesday, March 21.
Also, the electoral Commission explained that the shift came became necessary following printing errors discovered on the ballot papers and result sheets to be used in the election in the two Constituencies that make up the LGA.
In addition, a statement issued o Monday and signed by the National Commissioner and Chairman of, the Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr. Festus Okoye said a decision on the new date was reached after consultations with stakeholders in the area.
The statement read, “the public may recall that the Governorship and State Assembly elections in Kwande Local Government Area of Benue State scheduled for Saturday 18th March 2023 had to be suspended.
“This decision followed an inadvertent mix-up of some of the sensitive materials for the two State Assembly constituencies in the area, that is Kwande East and Kwande West. For this reason, voters and stakeholders agreed that the elections should be rescheduled. Consequently, the Commission stated that a new date will be announced for the elections.
After further consultation with stakeholders, our Resident Electoral Commissioner in Benue State, Professor Sam Egwu, has advised that the State office is ready to proceed with the rescheduled elections.
Accordingly, the Commission approved that the elections shall hold tomorrow Tuesday, March 21, 2023.
“The Commission appeals to voters in Kwande Local Government Area to troop out en masse and vote for the candidate of their choice.”
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Breakdown of the election results in Benue
Following the emergence of Fr. Hyacinth Alia, INEC showed that the APC won in 17 Local Government Areas, LGAs of the 23 LGAs of the state, PDP took four LGAs while LP took one LGA.
The declared result also indicates that the total valid votes in the election stood at 756,903, the total votes cast was 768,404 and the total Rejected votes in the election stood at 11,499.