>
Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the governorship candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Benue State, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia, as the winner of Saturday’s election.
The Catholic priest garnered 473,933 votes to defeat his closest challenger and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Titus Uba, who scored 223,913.
The Returning Officer for the state, Prof Faruq Kuta, who is the Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Technology, Minna, declared Alia the winner.
Meanwhile, the results of 20 governorship elections have been announced so far, with APC winning 14 states. The PDP has won in five states while the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) won in one state.
The election in Kebbi has been declared inconclusive by INEC while the collation of the results in Abia and Enugu have been suspended.
Officially, nine of the 11 governors who sought reelection have been declared winners by INEC.
They include Babagana Zulum (Borno), Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), Seyi Makinde (Oyo), AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq (Kwara), Inuwa Yahaya (Gombe), Abdullahi Sule (Nasarawa), Bala Mohammed (Bauchi) Mai Mala Buni (Yobe).