Charles Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance has garnered more votes than his main challengers in Saturday’s governorship election, winning all the 16 out of 18 local government areas results announced so far by the electoral office INEC. The state has 21 local government areas and the candidates of APC and PDP are the runners-up so far.
Mr Soludo, 61, has been locked in a close contest with Andy Uba of the All Progressives Congress, Valentine Ozigbo of the Peoples Democratic Party and Ifeanyi Ubah of the Young Progressives Party. The candidates are seeking to replace Governor Willie Obiano, the only APGA governor in the country.
Mr Obiano supported Mr Soludo during the primaries and pulled resources that aided his ardent campaign against candidates of the two biggest political parties, APC and PDP.
The 18 LGAs so far announced are Onitsha South, Ndemili South, Anyamelum, Oyi, Dunukofia, Awka South, Aguata, Anaocha, Orumba North, Orumba South, Njikoka, Idemili North, Onitsha North, Ogbaru, Nnewi North and Anambra East. Voting will, however, be allowed to continue on Sunday across polling units where delays were forced by widespread voting machine malfunctions.
PDP and YPP have won a local government area each.
From announced results, APGA scored 96,916; PDP scored 46,862; and APC scored 39,667.