The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP (PDP) in last Saturday’s bye election for River South-East senatorial district, in Rivers State, Hon. Olaka Nwogu has been declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
INEC result showed that Nwogu, who enjoys the backing of the Rainbow Coalition, the political platform loyal to Barr Nyesom Wike, the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), polled 47,961 votes.
The nearest to Nwogu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Osarokaka Ebenezer Erewari got a total of 1, 647 votes.
Nwogu would replace late Sen. Barinada Mpigi in the upper chamber in the National Assembly about a decade after he lost to Mpigi.
The INEC Returning Officer for the election, Professor Rosemary Ogu, announced the result at the Rivers South East Senatorial Collation Centre at the Khana Local Government Council Secretariat in Bori.
The Returning Officer stated that Nwogu Olaka Johnson had met the requirements of the law and was accordingly declared the winner.
Shortly after casting his vote, Nwogu had warned Nigerians not to give very rely on the use of technology in its elections following reports of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) malfunctioning.
Nwogu, who voted at his polling unit in Alesa Ward one, Eleme Local Government Area, however said that
he had received reports that there was no violence of any sort.
He said:“People have been calling me, and from the reports, there has been no violence anywhere. The tentative challenge has been that of the BVAS. But I believe that INEC is working hard to fix the problem. Despite that, our people really turned out to vote.
“But going forward, I think we should be cautious of over reliance on technology, except proven technology. But technology just by name will be a challenge. Technology should not cause disenfranchisement. So we need to invest in proven technology so that this process can work”, he maintained.”
