Gov. Samuel Ortom of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has taken an early lead in Saturday’s Governorship and State Assembly elections in the state.

Results as announced on Sunday in Makurdi by various INEC Collation Officers, showed that Ortom polled 64,654 votes from five Local Government Councils as against the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenger, Emmanuel Jime, with 59,649 votes.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports the results showed that although Ortom won in only two of five local governments he gave his opponent a margin of 5,005 votes.

The breakdown of the results showed that in Ogbadibo LGA, Jime polled 9,018 votes, Ortom had 8,515, the People’s Redemption Party ( PRP) polled 08 votes while the Advanced Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) won 03 votes.

Others were Oju LGA, Jime scored 19,061 votes to defeat Ortom who polled 13110 votes; the PRP got 72 votes while APGA polled 172 votes.

In Obi LGA, the APC candidate polled 9,696 votes, his PDP counterpart polled 9,055 votes; the PRP had 19 votes while APGA scored 174 votes.

The results in Gwer West LGA showed that APC polled 7,292 while PDP garnered 14,375 votes; PRP had 744 and APGA 15 votes.

In Gwer East LGA, the APC scored 14,582 votes as against PDP’s 19,596 votes; PRP had 142 votes while APGA won 04 votes.