Meanwhile, uncertainty has continued to trail the Imo North senatorial bye –election as the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Sunday declared the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the winner of the Imo North bye-election, held on Saturday, even as there is no clear picture of who the party’s candidate is.
The Election Returning Officer, Hakeem Adikum, who announced results of the election at th INEC, office along Port Harcourt road in Owerri, could not mention the name of the candidate of APC, that won the election.
Adikum only said that, APC clinched victory by polling 36,811 votes, while the PDP candidate, Chris Okewulonu, pulled 31, 903 votes. The results showed that APC, won five local government areas out six, which included Ehime Mbano, Onuimo, Ihitte Uboama, Obowo, Isiala Mbano, while the PDP, won only in Obowo local government area.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Francis Ezeonu, noted that however that the commission relied on what he described as “Several court orders for and against Senator Ifeanyi Araraume and Frank Ibeziem, who are both laying claim to the APC candidature.
It would be recalled that while an Appeal court sitting in Owerri, authenticated the candidature of Frank Ibeziem, another federal high in Abuja, same day, disqualified Ibeziem as the senatorial candidate of APC, on the grounds of certificate forgery.
