The winner of the rerun governorship primary election held in 11 Local Government Areas of Benue State is Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia.
Alia received 410,682 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Barrister Sam Ode, who received 22,319 votes, according to Senator Basheer Lado, chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC)'s rescheduled primary election committee for governor of Benue State.
According to our correspondent, the rerun election was mandated by the Appeal Court in Makurdi Division in response to a case brought by one of the candidates, Prof. Terhemba Shija, ordering the APC to hold new primary elections in 137 wards across 11 LGAs.
Before the top vote-getter was declared the victor, the court ordered that the results of the rerun election be added to the prior results of the primary in 12 LGAs to account for all 23 LGAs in the state.
To this aim, the primary election held on Thursday in the affected areas was declared won by Alia, who received 410,682 votes to defeat his close challenger, Barr Sam Ode, who received 22,319 votes, according to Senator Basheer Lado, Chairman of the Committee.
Lado also revealed that there were 868,010 party members who had registered to vote in the 23 LGAs of the state.
After adding the results, he listed the votes received by each candidate in the state's 23 LGAs as follows: Mathias Ibuan received 14,593 votes; Bernard Yisa, an architect, received 581 votes; Senator Barnabas Gemade received 5,125 votes; Terlumun Ikya received 2,851 votes; and Sam Ode, a lawyer, received 22,319 votes.
Other candidates include Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, who received 410,682 votes; Michael Kaase Aondoakaa (SAN); Godwin Tyoachimin; Steven Lawani; Prof. Terhemba Shija; Mlanga; Terwase Orbunde; and Herman Hembe, who received 638 votes.
In light of this, the committee chairman declared Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia, who received 410,682 votes in total and so received the most votes, the winner of the election.
Shortly after the results were announced, the party conducted a Special Congress where it confirmed Father Alia's candidature and declared him to be legitimately chosen to represent the party in the March 11 governorship race.
The Committee additionally announced the results for a rerun in the 11 LGAs in addition to the results for the state's 23 LGAs.
Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia received 219,002 votes in the rerun election, followed by Architect Bernard Yisa with 136 votes, Sam Ode with 255 votes, Mathia Ibuan with 4,797 votes, Michael Kaase Aondoakaa with 606 votes, and Senator Barnabas Gemade with 450 votes.
Herman Hembe, who received 688 votes, Terwase Orbunde, 2, Steven Lawani, 120, Mlanga, 766, Terhemba Shija, 219, and Godwin Tyoachimin, who received 454 votes, are the other candidates.