The Independent National Electoral Commission has declared Olaka Nwogu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the Rivers South East Senatorial District by-election held on Saturday.
Announcing the result at the Rivers South East Senatorial Collation Centre in Bori on Saturday night, the INEC Returning Officer, Professor Rosemary Ogu, said Nwogu polled 46,961 votes to defeat his closest challenger, the APC’s Osarokaka Ebenezer Erewari, who scored 1,647 votes. The Action Alliance’s Douglas Fabeke got 1,175 votes, while the Labour Party’s Sam Kinani polled 367.
Ogu said Nwogu, who is an ally of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, had met the requirements of the law and was accordingly declared the winner of the election.
“Nwogu Olaka Johnson of the PDP, having satisfied the requirements of the law, is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected,” she said.
The election was conducted to fill the seat left vacant following the death of Senator Barry Mpigi in February. Four political parties — the APC, PDP, Action Alliance, and Labour Party — fielded candidates and contested the poll across the seven local government areas that make up the senatorial district: Khana, Gokana, Tai, Eleme, Andoni, Oyigbo, and Opobo.
READ ALSO: [Rivers By-Election] Gokhana Stakeholders Back Olaka Nwogu, Mobilise Voters
BVAS Issues Addressed
Meanwhile, INEC says it has taken steps to address technical glitches recorded with the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) during the election.
The Head of Department, Voter Education at INEC Rivers State, Geraldine Ekelemo, said this while speaking with journalists during an inspection tour of some of the affected local government areas alongside the INEC National Commissioner for the South-South, May Agbamuche-Mbu.
Ekelemo said the Commission had deployed backup BVAS machines to all seven local government areas ahead of the election, with technical staff on ground to quickly reconfigure replacement devices wherever the primary machines malfunctioned.
“INEC was proactive in ensuring that backup BVAS were supplied and distributed to each of these LGAs,” she said, adding that technical teams were able to resolve the hitches recorded at a few polling units without major disruption to the process.
The post PDP’s Olaka Nwogu Wins Rivers South East Senatorial By-Election appeared first on Channels Television.
