Emeka Ihedioha: election being disputed as Imo PDP governorship candidate

The result of the governorship primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party in the eastern Nigerian state of Imo is being hotly challenged by Senator Ifeanyi Araraume, who is laying joint claim to victory along with Chief Emeka Ihedioha, the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives.

Ihedioha was declared the winner yesterday by the Tengu Tsegba, chairman of the Imo State PDP Governorship Primaries Committee.

In a clearly tight race, Ihedioha was said to have won with 346 votes.

Araraume, now pushing to be recognised as the real winner scored 336 votes, while a former governor, Chief Ikedi Ohakim scored 213 votes.

In a petition to Tsegba, Araraume alleged that there was a mistake in the result released by the Electoral Committee in the computation of the results of the election and called for its immediate correction.

He equally demanded that he be declared the winner of the governorship primaries.

According to his petition, he scored 336 votes, while Ihedioha scored 325 votes, claiming that the electoral panel committed an error by declared more votes than the total number of registered delegates.

Araraume claimed that 1, 017 delegates were accredited for voting, whereas the votes cast was 1,027.

The difference, he claimed, was awarded to Ihedioha.

He therefore called on the Committee to declare him the winner since, according to him, he scored the
highest number of votes in the Governorship primaries.

There were 30 contestants for the PDP candidacy.

The scores of some of the other 27 governorship aspirants in the election held at the Grasshoppers Handball Stadium in Owerri are: Senator Bright Nwanne 46 votes, Humphrey Anumudu 20, Bethel Amadi 15, Senator Chris Anyanwu 10, Prof. Jude Njoku 8 and Ken Njemanze 7, Emma Ojinere 4, and Ken Ojiri 4.