The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Siminialayi Fubara has been declared the winner of the Rivers State governorship election.
Fubara was announced as winner late on Monday night by Professor Akpofure Rim-Rukeh, the state’s returning officer, at the conclusion of the two days of collation at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Head Office in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State.
With 302,614 votes, the PDP candidate defeated Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who received 95,274 votes. Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Beatrice Itubo of the Labour Party (LP), who received 46,981 and 22,224 votes respectively, finished far behind in third and fourth place.
Of the 3,537,190 registered voters in the State, according to Professor Akpofure Rim-Rukeh, who is also the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, 496,852 were accredited to vote in the March 18 governorship election.
However, the governorship candidate of the APC, Tonye Cole, has rejected the results of the just concluded election in the state, saying the mandate of electorate in Rivers State have been stolen.
Cole made his position known on Monday night at a joint press conference with the candidate of the National Rescue Movement (NRM), Sobomabo Jackrich; and African Democratic Congress (ADC), Tonye Ibraye.
He called on INEC to cancel the election, following “widespread violence and irregularities” whille advising his supporters to remain calm as he takes steps to reclaim their mandate.
The NRM candidate and his ADC counterpart, said the violence and intimidation which characterised the March 18 election in the state were too visible to be ignored by the commission.
