Alia wins Benue APC governorship re-run primary election

Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia has been declared the winner of the re-run governorship primary election conducted in 11 local government areas of Benue State.

The Chairman of Benue State Governorship Rescheduled Primary Elections Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Basheer Lado, who made the declaration on Friday in Makurdi, said Alia polled 410,682 votes to beat his closet rival, Barrister Sam Ode, who polled 22,319.

Our correspondent reports that the re-run election followed the order of the Court of Appeal in Makurdi that the APC conduct a fresh primary election in 137 wards of 11 LGAs in a judgement of a case filed by one of the aspirants, Prof Terhemba Shija.

The court had ordered that the re-run election results be added to the previous outcome of 12 LGAs primaries to make up the entire 23 LGAs of the state before the declaration of the highest votes scorer as a winner.

To this end, the chairman of the committee, Senator Basheer Lado, declared Alia who polled 410,682 votes to beat his closet rival, Barr Sam Ode, who scored 22,319 as a winner of the primary election conducted on Thursday in the affected areas.

Lado also disclosed that the total number of registered voters of the party for the election in the 23 LGAs of the state stood at 868,010.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Appeal Panel, Umar Kolo, said the Appeal Panel would commence sitting by noon on Friday to entertain complaints from aspirants that were not satisfied with the outcome of the election.