BREAKING: LP governorship candidate in narrow lead in Enugu after eight local govts

The Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate in Enugu State, Chijioke Edeoga, is leading with a slim margin after the collation of the results of Saturday’s governorship election from eight local government areas of the state.

There are 17 local government areas in the state. This implies that the results from nine local government areas of the state, which could still tilt the balance, are still being awaited.

The results of the first eight local government areas were announced on Sunday at the State Collation Centre of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Enugu.

Collation officers from the eight local government areas submitted the results to the Returning Officer for the election, Maduebibisi Iwe.

The local government areas where results for the governorship election have been collated are Uzo-Uwani, Udi, Igbo-Eze North, Oji River, Ezeagu, Aninrii, Igbo-Etiti, and IIsi-Uzo.

The LP candidate, Mr Edeoga, and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rival, Peter Mbah, have so far won in four of the eight local government areas each. But the LP candidate is leading with a higher number of votes so far.

The results tallied by PREMIUM TIMES showed that the LP candidate has polled a total of 66,907 votes ahead of his PDP counterpart who scored 66,471. The margin is less than 500 votes.

The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Uche Nnaji, trails with a total of 7,307 votes.

The four local government areas where Mr Edeoga won include Igbo-Eze North, Oji River, Igbo-Etiti and Isi-Uzo, where he hails from.

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Mr Mbah, the PDP candidate, won in Uzo-Uwani, Udi, Ezeagu and Aninri.

The APC candidate, Mr Nnaji, did not win in any of the eight council areas.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Chukwuemeka Chukwu, said the collation of results for the election would resume as soon as results from the nine remaining local government areas arrive at the centre.