With the conclusion at the weekend of rerun elections in disputed areas, all the 36 governors have emerged.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has 22 states, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) controls 13 and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) is in charge in one state.

After the rerun, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared PDP candidates Darius Ishaku (Taraba) and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) as governors-elect.

APC’s Rochas Okorocha defeated House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha to retain his seat as Imo State governor.

Ishaku was declared winner of the hard-fought governorship election in Taraba State. He won in 10 local government areas with accumulated votes of 369,318.

INEC Returning Officer Prof. Ahmed Kyari said Hajia Aisha Jummai Alhassan of APC, the only woman governorship candidate, scored 275,984 votes.

Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate David Sabo Kente came a distant third, with 29,985 votes.

PDP won the supplementary election with 52,120 votes. APC got 13,598 votes. PDP won nine of the 10 local governments where the rerun was held.

APC won only Jalingo where the rerun took place in one polling unit.

In all, 127,125 registered voters participated in the exercise in 159 polling units across 10 local government areas: Bali Zing, Takum, Yorro, Donga, Wukari, Ussa, Karim Lamido, Kurmi and Jalingo.

A breakdown of the result is as follows: Bali (APC-910, PDP-5,551), Donga (APC-9,885, PDP-37,375), Jalingo (APC-362, PDP-90), Karimlamido (APC-459, PDP-2,091), Kurmi (APC-49, PDP-314), Takum (APC-560, PDP-3,114), Ussa (APC-528, PDP-1,198), Wukari (APC-728, PDP-1,507), Yorro (APC-34, PDP-469), Zing (APC-83, PDP-411).

In the first poll, Ishaku, an architect and former Minister of State for Power, Environment and Niger Delta Affairs, was leading with 54,812 votes. He won the election in nine of the 16 local government areas with 317,198 votes. Alhassan, a lawyer and senator representing Northern Taraba District, trailed with 262,386 votes garnered in six local government areas.

There were 681,166 total valid votes cast in the first and supplementary polls.

Ishiaku extended the hand of fellowship to everyone, including his co-contenders from other political parties.

He spoke to reporters at his official residence in Jalingo soon after INEC declared him winner.

“The candidates of other political parties could not win, not because they lack the wherewithal. But because Taraba people spoke through the ballot, with enthusiasm and seriousness, that they want me for the job.

“I wish to pay tributes to Sen. Aisha Alhassan of the APC and my brother David Sabo Kente of the SDP and their running mates. They all did well. They are not losers or vanquished.

“The doors of my administration shall be opened to them for participatory governance, wise counselling and or constructive criticism,” he said.

But Hajia Alhassan rejected the result.  She told a news conference in Jalingo that the entire process was a “daylight robbery’’ and that her party would challenge the results at the elections petitions tribunal.

“The combined governorship elections in Taraba were characterised by violence, massive rigging, ballot snatching and abuse of the card readers in substantial parts of the state by the PDP and their allies,” she said.

Senator Alhassan contended that results ascribed to Wukari, Donga, Takum, Sardauna, Zing, Yorro, Kurmi and some parts of Ussa, Karim-Lamido, Bali, Ardo-Kola and Lau local government areas did not reflect the true situation.

She said all the complaints on the irregularities and abuse of the election guidelines were promptly reported to INEC, but that no action was taken.

In Abia, INEC declared Ikpeazu winner with 264,713 votes to defeat the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA)  candidate, Dr Alex Otti, who polled 180,882 votes at the end of the re-run election in nine local government areas.

Ikpeazu hails from Obingwa Local Government Area in Abia South Senatorial District.

He holds a Ph.D in Chemistry and taught at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology before going into politics.

He was the Assistant General Manager of the Abia State Environmental Sanitation Agency in charge of Aba until November 2014, when he resigned his appointment to join the governorship race.

Chief Ahamdi Nweke, the APGA agent in the supplementary elections questioned the authenticity of the result from Obingwa Local Government Area.

Raising objections to the results of Saturday’s re-run election in nine local government areas, Nweke said that the Obingwa result sheet bore the stamp of Umuahia local government areas.

The result showed that PDP polled 82,240 votes as against 1,952 scored by APGA.

Nweke pleaded repeatedly with the Returning Officer, Prof. Benjamin Ozumba, to “take a look at the result sheet, which is with you here”.

“All I am asking is for the returning officer to look at the result sheet from Obingwa in the presence of the two INEC national commissioners and commissioners of police.

“The result sheet bears the stamp of Umuahia, which is in another senatorial district; please show it for the world to see,’’ Nweke, a lawyer, said.

He also protested the result from Osisioma polling area, saying that the figures in the results sheet were at variance with the results from the polling units.

The result sheets from the polling units were later presented to the collation officers for verification vis-à-vis the collated results.

The APGA agent, who identified himself simply as Uzor, claimed that the results from Osisioma were not collated at the ward level, in spite of his protest.

Uzor claimed that the electoral materials were forcibly conveyed to the local government collation centre where he was barred by security agents from entering.

“The state returning officer wanted to confirm the allegation with copies from other agents but no other agent was available at the collation centre.’’

Uzor added that the returning officer proceeded to announce the disputed results as collated.

APGA National Chairman Chief Victor Umeh assured the people that they were going to recover their “stolen” mandate from the PDP at the tribunal.

Umeh said what happened was a charade and should not be allowed to stand.

Umeh, other party chiefs and governorship candidate Dr Alex Otti said that they asked INEC to cancel the results of three local governments of Obingwa, Osisioma and Isiala Ngwa North, which they refused to do.

They said there were no elections in those three council areas during the April 11 election, stressing that there were irregularities which include failure of card readers and ballot box snatching.

The APGA chief said  Prof Ozumba, had earlier cancelled the results from those areas only for him to reverse himself when PDP chieftains stormed the collation centre.

Umeh said that the party is rejecting the result of the election not because it could not afford to lose an election but because the election was not credible as it was full of fraud ranging from ballot box snatching to card reader failure.

Otti said that the people voted for him freely with one voice, “as they want the wind of change that is sweeping across the country to touch them too”.

Otti called on the people to remain calm, saying: “The election may have come but not gone as it is not over yet. We are going to recover our stolen mandate from those who stole them at the tribunal.”