UMUAHIA – battle for who occupies the Abia State Government House in Umuahia has shifted to Abuja, News Express reports.
Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate, Dr Alex Otti, is leading his main challenger, Chief Okey Ahiwe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), with a wide margin but collation of the results was suspended yesterday, Monday by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) following the invasion of the Obingwa collation centre by thugs suspected to be working for Ahiwe, the anointed candidate of outgoing governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu.
While announcing the immediate suspension of collation of the governorship election results, the Administrative Secretary of INEC, Abia State, Chief Clement Oha, had said in Umuahia that there would be no further collation of results at Obingwa “until INEC Commissioners arrive from Abuja by Tuesday to supervise the collation and take decision on what has to be done after reviewing the situation on ground.”
However, information reaching News Express has it that INEC has decided not to send its officials from Abuja to Umuahia because of security reasons, following intelligence reports.
“The battle shifts to Abuja from today. All have been invited to Abuja because it is feared that the thugs who invaded the Obingwa collation centre have infiltrated Umuahia,” an impeccable source who is in the know told News Express.
Otti has won a total of 10 out of the 16 Local Government Area results so far declared by INEC. He polled a total of 171,747 votes while Ahiwe scored a total of 79,477 votes after winning five LGAs.
Young Peoples Party (YPP) polled 8,839 to win Osisioma LGA the home of its governorship candidate, Enyinnaya Nwafor.
