Fr. Hyacinth Alia has again been declared the winner of the rerun governorship primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State having polled 410,682 votes.
Alia reportedly beat his co-contestants silly in an exercise that indicated that party members were fiercely angry with those who went to court to dilate the process of validating his candidature.
This is the third time that the primary election had been held with Alia emerging winner on the three occasions.
The Chairman, Rescheduled Election Committee, Senator Basheer Lado, announced Alia as the winner of the primary poll in Makurdi, the Benue State capital on Thursday.
Lado said the first runner-up was Dr Matthias Byuan who polled 14,592 votes, while the second runner-up was Sen. Barnabas Gemade who scored 5,125 votes.
Prof. Terhemba Shija, whose suit at the Court of Appeal resulted in the verdict ordering rerun in 14 local government areas of the state, scored 2,217 votes, while Michael Aondoakaa and Iorwase Hembe scored 3,815 and 638 votes, respectively.
“The winner of the exercise is Alia. Having scored the highest vote cast. I declare him as the winner,” Lado said.
Alia’s candidature was later ratified by members of the party through a voice vote.
The party chairman, Austin Agada, had put a question to members seeking to know whether the result was a true reflection of what transpired in the field and they answered in the affirmative.
“Having ratified Alia’s candidature, I, therefore, declare that Alia is the governorship candidate of the party in Benue,” Agada said.
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