Alia wins rescheduled APC gubernatorial election in Benue

For the third time, Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia has won the rescheduled primaries for governor of the All Progressive Congress in Benue.

The committee’s chairman, Senator Basheer Lado, declared the result of the rescheduled gubernatorial primaries on Friday, saying that Rev. Fr.

Senator Lado explained that the party’s total registered voters for the election in the state’s 23 LGAs was 868,010.

Lado, who gave a breakdown of the votes garnered by each of the aspirants in the state’s 23 LGAs, said Mathias Ibuan garnered 14,593 votes; Architect Bernard Yisa, 581 votes; Senator Barnabas Gemade, 5,125 votes; Terlumun Ikya, 2,851 votes and Barr Sam Ode received 22,319 votes.

Others are Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia, 410,682 votes; Michael Kaase Aondoakaa (SAN), 3,815 votes; Godwin Tyoachimin, 1,139 votes; Steven Lawani, 21,172 votes; Prof. Terhemba Shija, 2,217 votes; Mlanga, 219 votes; Terwase Orbunde, 1,391 votes, while Herman Hembe obtained 638 votes.

The. The Chairman said, “With this document before me, I hereby declare Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia who received a total of 410,682 votes; have received the highest number of votes as the winner of this election.”

The result of the rerun of the primaries shows that Rev. Fr Hyacinth Alia received 219,002 votes; Architect Bernard Yisa, 136 votes; Sam Ode, 255 votes; Mathia Ibuan, 4,797 votes; Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, SAN, 606 votes and Senator Barnabas Gemade, 450 votes.

Others are Herman Hembe, 688 votes; Terwase Orbunde, 2 votes; Steven Lawani, 120 votes; Mlanga, 766 votes; Terhemba Shija, 219 votes and Godwin Tyoachimin, 454 votes.

The party in the state later held a special convention where it confirmed the candidacy of Rev. Father Hyacinth Alia as duly elected to fly the party’s banner in next month’s elections.

State Party Chairman Austin Agada argued for the ratification of Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia and said, “Those who favor the return of Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia as a candidate for the governorship of APC in the state say yes.”

The move was greeted with a resounding ‘yes’, with Agada saying in view of Alia’s acceptance, “I hereby endorse Reverend Fr Hyacinth Alia as the party’s nominee.”

Meanwhile, the chairman of the appeals panel, Umar Kolo, said the appeals panel would sit down at noon on Friday to hear complaints from aspirants who were unhappy with the outcome of the election.

It should be recalled that last week the Court of Appeals in Makurdi ordered a repeat of primaries in 11 of the state’s 23 local government areas to determine the party’s authentic candidate.

The Court of Appeal issued the order when it ruled on the case presented by one of the aspirants, Professor Terhemba Shija, adding that the result of the repetition will be added to the existing result of the 12 LGAs.

The appeals court the same day rejected another appeal filed by another aspiring governor, Senator Barnabas Gemade, on grounds of statute of limitations.

While the two candidates have reportedly moved on to the Supreme Court, two cases brought by another aspiring governor, Mike Aondoaaka and the People’s Democratic Party, are still pending in the Abuja appeals court.

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