By Omenihu Alfred fibmn
Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia of the Catholic Priesthood has won Benue State governorship election in the just concluded gubernatorial election which took place on the 18th of March to the surprise of so many detractors who have thought that it would never happen.
Fr Alia of he All Progressives Congress (APC scored 473,933 votes to beat his closest challenger, Titus Uba of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who happens to be the current Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly PDP who polled 223,913 votes.
Announcing the results of the governorship poll in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, on Monday, Faruk Kuta, the state collation and returning officer and vice-chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, (FUT) Minna, said the valid votes stood at 756,903, while the rejected votes were: 11,499. The total votes cast were: 768,402.
Citing section 24(1) of the Electoral Act (2022) and INEC Guidelines for the election, the State Returning Officer declared Mr Alia as the winner of the 2023 Benue State governorship election.
The margin of win is 250,020 votes based on the total number of votes collated from 22 out of the 23 local government areas of Benue State. Kwande Local Government Area LGA with a total number of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) of 156,826, to was shifted to Tuesday, 21 March, due to printing errors on the ballot papers. However, the margin of win already overrules the Tuesday election. Another interesting side of the story is that both APC and PDP contestants hail from Vandeikya Local Government Area of Benue State. The Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate in Benue, Herman Hembe, came third in the race with 41,881 votes.
