INEC Declares PDP’s Umo Eno As Akwa Ibom Gov-Elect

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom State, Umo Eno as the winner of the March 18 governorship poll in the state.

Eno polled 354,348 to defeat his closest rivals — Akanimo Udofia of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who scored 129,602 votes and Labour Party (LP)’s Uduakobong who got 4,746 votes.

Eno was declared the winner by INEC Returning Officer in the state, Prof Emmanuel Adigio.

Eno, a former Commissioner for Lands in Akwa Ibom, is the anointed candidate of the incumbent governor, Udom Emmanuel, whose two terms of eight years will end on May 29, 2023.

Governorship elections were held in 28 of Nigeria’s 36 states on Saturday. The governorship and state assembly elections were held a week later than initially scheduled after a court case forced INEC to move them forward.

Eight of the 36 states — Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Osun, and Ondo — have governorship elections “off-season” due to litigations and court judgements.

In alphabetical order, the 28 states where governorship elections were on March 18 are Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara.

Of the 28 states, 11 serving governors sought reelection while 17 outgoing governors are in the final weeks of their constitutional two-term limits of eight years, having been sworn in on May 29, 2015.