Ezea polled a total of 104, 492 votes in the senatorial race, while his nearest challenger, Gov Ugwuanyi of the PDP garnered 46, 948 votes
By Kehinde Okeowo
Labour Party (LP) candidate in the Enugu North Senatorial zone, Mr. Okey Ezea has been declared the winner of the Senatorial election held on Saturday, February 25.
Ezea was declared the winner after defeating the incumbent Governor of the state and the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate, Mr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.
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The result of the election was announced by the returning officer, Prof. Chukwuemeka Ubaka, early Monday morning.
According to the returning officer, Ezea polled a total of 104, 492 votes, while Ugwuanyi of the PDP garnered 46, 948 votes to emerge second.
The APC candidate, Eze Simon came a distant third with a total of 6,816 votes.
Earlier, there was mild drama at the INEC collation centre in the district, when the returning officer said he would not collate the senatorial results unless he was given the district’s authentic forms for results and declaration.
Some LP members had accused the returning officer of colluding with an unnamed opposition candidate to overturn the result against the eventual winner.
The defeat of Mr Ugwuanyi marked the first time an opposition political party would unseat a candidate of the ruling PDP in the state.
The PDP had never lost any election in the state since the return of democracy in 1999.
Chukwuka Utazi, the incumbent senator representing the district, had stepped down for Mr Ugwuanyi, ahead of the PDP primary election for the district in May last year.
Mr Ugwunanyi is a member of the G5 group of PDP governors opposed to their party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar. He will exit office as the governor of the state on 29 May this year after his two terms in office.