*As PDP  clears House of Assembly seats

By Tony Edike

ENUGU-GOVENROR Sullivan Chime of Enugu State was yesterday declared winner of the governorship election held on Tuesday by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in the state.  

The PDP also cleared the 24 House of Assembly seats.

In the result declared by the state Returning Officer and Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN, Prof Bartho Okolo, the PDP candidate polled 419,790 votes to beat his closest rival and candidate of  Labour Party, Okey Ezea, who polled a distant 30,135 votes.

The candidate of the People for Democratic Change, PDC, Dr Dan Shere came third with 29,565 votes.

Speaking with newsmen after declaring the result, Professor Okolo commended politicians in the state for the peaceful manner they conducted themselves throughout the election and after receiving the outcome.

“The incredible thing about this election is that everybody is smiling home after the result was declared.  Can you believe that after an election of this nature all of us will be outside here smiling without any person frowning? 

“Have you thought about it that in Nigeria and in Enugu State in particular you could come out from announcing a major election result like this and everybody is smiling away even the losers are happy losing.

“That is a wonderful thing that has happened to us.  So we should all go and thank God for this incredible thing and thank God and the President of Nigeria for creating the environment for this great thing to happen to us,” Okolo said.

While urging the losers to see themselves as having “lost gallantly” and should wait for another opportunity in the future, the UNN Vice Chancellor, however, charged the governor “to try as much as possible to justify the mandate given to him by the people.”

Reacting to Governor Chime’s victory, Director General of Sullivan Chime Campaign Organization, Dr. Festus Uzor said that the victory was made possible by four major reasons, explaining that apart from the abiding grace of God  which led the governor and his supporters through the process and crowned their efforts with success, the good works of the governor afforded them the ground to embark on a robust campaign.